The Siddharth Nagar Police have come up with the novel way of saving both stray cows as well as motorists from road accidents—radium belts.
Siddhartha Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police Dharam Veer Singh, the man behind the idea, says that since chief minister Adityanath’s government assumed office in 2017, the problem of stray cows has assumed alarming proportions.
“The government has completely closed down slaughter houses. Smuggling of cattle has also ended as the state government is now imposing Gangster Act and life imprisonment for those caught smuggling cattle. As a result, there has been a dramatic increase in number of stray animals on the roads,” the SSP said, and quickly adds: “People were previously afraid of cattle theft in the night. Now they sleep unafraid, because nobody would dare do anything”.
Of course, that has led to another massive problem: stray cattle causing road accidents. And it’s mostly young men wearing no helmets that are its biggest fatalities.
“With medical facilities being what it is, these accidents prove to be debilitating for these victims even if they survive, which is very painful,” he said.
Radium belts would help motorists spot stray animals in the dark—a tool especially helpful in winter, when fog causes visibility to plummet. The belts would go around the animals’ necks and horns so they could be spotted from a distance.
Easier said than done—in the past few days, district police have able to identify and mark only 500 cattle of the 25 to 30 thousand in Siddharth Nagar district alone. And that’s primarily because it takes a great deal of effort to first lure, then hold on to the animal.
“They are lured with fruits and then at least two policemen are required to tie the belt”.
And although cost effective—it costs only Rs 10 per animal—it takes many hours of manual labour to accomplish the task. Still, SSP Singh says it’s worth the effort. “This seems like the only way to save human lives as well as those of the stray cattle,” he points out.
