Indian cattle flood Rajshahi city markets

Local cattle markets in Rajshahi are flooded with Indian cattle heads amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Owners of the local cattle farmers are disappointed over the sale of their livestock as Eid-ul-Azha is knocking at the door. They demanded to stop the import of Indian cattle.

In the Rajshahi City Haat, a big cattle market in the northern region, huge Indian sacrificial animals were brought on Monday. The Indian cattle heads price is less than that of the local ones. And everyday the price is falling.

According to sources, Indian cattle are entering the country through some border points of Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj and transported through trucks via joint check posts of BGB and the Customs at Rajabrihat of Godagari upazila.

Rajshahi Animal Resource (RAR) department sources said nearly 100,000 local bulls and buffaloes and 202,800 goats and 2,000 other animals are ready for sale.

Under such a situation, local cattle farm owners have expressed their disappointment over the import of Indian cattle heads. They mentioned, due to flood and Coronavirus situation, the price of cattle heads is very low this year and the import of cattle from India before the Eid will further decrease the price that forces them to incur a huge loss.

Lieutenant Colonel Ferdous Ziauddin Mahmud, Commander of BGB, Rajshahi-1 battalion said there are four frontier cattle corridors in Rajshahi.

Of those, Indian cattle are entering through one corridor. However, he has no idea about the corridors of Chapainawabganj.

He further said if the government keeps the frontier cattle corridor open to import cattle, the BGB has nothing to do.

Meanwhile, demand for sacrificial animals has decreased abnormally this year.

Malek Mia, owner of a cattle farm in City Bypass area said he visited seven markers and witnessed the low price. He further said such low price of cattle is due to import of Indian cattle.

Atiqur Rahman Kalu, lessee of Rajshahi City Hat said, there was a very low turn out of customers in the hat for the last two weeks but now the number of customers is increasing gradually.