Shillong, Dec 1 : The unabated cross-border smuggling of cattle from the northeastern states to Bangladesh has raised security concerns as it creates breaches on the border fence.
''Cattle smuggling is destroying the expensive barbed wire fence and leaving gaps for militants to infiltrate inside India,'' Inspector General of Border Security Force (BSF), P K Mishra told reporters on the sidelines of BSF's 44th Raising Day.
The Home Ministry was aware of the damage caused to the fence, he said, while revealing that the ministry was yet to react in this connection.
''The modus operandi is simple. Smugglers forcibly chase these marauding cattle across the fence, sometimes numbering in thousands, across the fence after breaching the fence,'' Mr Mishra said.
He said the breach of the fence is not only expensive but repairing the fence is time consuming. ''To rebuild a small breach, it costs anything between Rs 20,000 to 30,000'' the IG of BSF said.
The smuggling of cattle escalates especially during the festive season when on an average 18-20 lakh cattle are slaughtered.
Mr Mishra said the cattle are smuggled from Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to the Indo-Bangla border. The cattle are smuggled to the border in trucks and are driven through the orchards in order to avoid the frontier guards.
''It is difficult to catch the smugglers as local villagers claim the cattle as theirs,'' the BSF official said.
Cattle smuggling across the border has literally turned into a lucrative industry in Bangladesh. The leather industry located at Hazaribagh, the northwestern part of Dhaka is estimated to be worth Rs 2500 crore a year.
The export figures stand at about 300 million dollar. Bangladesh produces two to three per cent of the world's leather market.
''Some of the finished leather goods are then exported to India,'' Mr Mishra said.
--- UNI
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