Alleging that cattle smuggling across the Indo-Bangladesh border was rampant, the Border Security Force on Sunday said it lacked the necessary infrastructure to completely check such practices.
"On an average, about 1.5 million of livestock are smuggled to Bangladesh every year. One out of every three cattle killed in Bangladesh is from India," BSF Director-General R S Mooshahary said in New Delhi during a lecture on 'Unquiet Borders'.
Pleading helplessness in checking of such practices, Mooshahary said, "We check the smuggling... But we do not have the infrastructure to keep the huge number of cattle. Hence we auction those and smugglers again participate in the auction and take the cattle," he said.
He claimed that the Bangladesh government makes good earning out of the cattle business.
It collects 500 Bangladeshi Taka (about Rs 192) for each cattle being taken from India. Besides, the country exports meat to Arab countries and gets good earnings, he said.
The cattle owners in India sell livestock at a throwaway price, he said adding that he had proposed to the West Bengal government to export processed meat, so that people could get good earnings.
"The West Bengal government said that the commerce ministry was not allowing export of processed meet of livestock," he said.
The smuggling has declined in last year, and consequently the price of meet has increased substantially in Bangladesh recently, he said.
More reports from Bangladesh
The Rediff Special on Bangladesh
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