Activists rescue 1,700 calves from slaughter house

They took the animals packed into the bogies to a panjrapol in Deesa near Palanpur. But not before three were dead and 10 injured.

The calves were loaded into the goods train at Bhagat Ki Kothi railway station near Jodhpur on November 20 evening. But as the train reached Amirgadh station, Pajpur-Deesa Panjrapol secretary Bharat Kothari, a well-known animal rights activist, got wind of it, and reached the station to lodge a protest with the authorities. It did not work.

Meanwhile, Bachubhai P. Rambhia, manager of Gitaben Rambhia Smruti Ahimsa Trust, Ahmedabad, got to know of it and sent some activists to Mehsana.

From there, the activists followed the train upto Kalupur railway station, but not before a two-hour suspense as the train had halted at Khodiar, a previous station.

At Kalupur station, the activists gave a written complaint to police inspector Mewada demanding action against the consignment-owner under Prevention of Cruelty To Animal Act, 1960. The act lays down that while transporting animals by railway, not more than 20 young animals can be kept in a broad-gauge bogie.

“Each of the 38 bogies had between 40-58 calves stuffed. They were packed like sardines. They were tied and had no water or grass,” said Rambhia. Rambhia claimed that the police inspector even prepared a report, but then asked the activists to go to Anand, where the consignment was being off-loaded.

Rambhia even alleged that there were no escorts in the train to arrange for water and grass for the cattle. He suspects that escorts, if any, must have vanished after seeing activists chase the train.

When the train reached Anand early on November 22, activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Samrajya Sena and senior police and administration official were present.

According to the activists, a minister from Gandhinagar called them up and requested them not to file a complaint. Rambhia and others said they then called up Union Minister of State for Social Welfare Menaka Gandhi. She asked Dr Arvindkumar Seth of the Animal Welfare Board, Vadodara, to check if the animals were being ill-treated. Seth confirmed violation of law and said a police complaint should be filed. Union Deputy Railway Minister Ram Nayak, too, gave the go-ahead for filing complaint if rules had been broken.

The calves were taken off the bogies and given fodder and water as over 5,000 people gathered to express solidarity with the Rambhia Trust, which then filed a complaint.

The first information report (FIR) names 36 persons, including consigner Bhupatbhai, who, curiously, was also the consignee. The first class judicial magistrate (Anand) ordered that the animals be sent to the Deesa panjrapol till investigation was completed.

Superintendent of Gujarat Railway Police force K.H. Das of Gujarat Railway Police said the 36 men named in the FIR, who were herding the calves in the train, only said they were going to sell them in the villages.

Das said he found it incongruous that the men, who were ordinarily dressed, could have paid upto Rs 2 lakh for transporting the animals and spent Rs 1,700 daily on whatever fodder the animals were given on the way. “Besides, at Rs 500 per head of cattle, the consignment would have cost over Rs 8 lakh. How could they have afforded it”?

Though Das said that laws had been violated, senior divisional commercial manager (Vadodara) of Western Railways Manmohan Singh said this was not so.

Rambhia and others said this was not the first time calves were being brought to Gujarat for illegal slaughter, but this was the largest consignment intercepted by them so far. He lamented that the BJP government, which professes Hindutva, was not checking cow slaughter.