[mukto-mona] Cow Smuggling ... It's How Bangladesh Gets its Beef

FOOD ECONOMICS

Cow Smuggling ... It's How Bangladesh Gets its Beef

Published: Sunday, 27 Jan 2013 | 7:46 PM ET

By: Shaikh Azizur Rahman

AP

In Muslim majority Bangladesh beef is in high demand. More than 90 percent of the 160 million people who live there are Muslims and for them beef is a delicacy.

The country's meat producers estimate that slaughterhouses need up to 3 million cows every year to feed Bangladeshi appetites, and to help meet demand, Bangladesh is eyeing neighboring India. Cows are everywhere in India, but the cow is considered holy in the Hindu-majority country. In fact, slaughtering cows is banned in many Indian states, and New Delhi refuses to export them.

(Read More: Exports of Buffalo Meat Soar From India)

That refusal hasn't done much to deter the demand for beef in Bangladesh, however. In fact, say officials inDhaka, beef has become so valuable it's spurred a dangerous cow smuggling trade across the India-Bangladesh border.

More than 2 million cows are smuggled from India to Bangladesh every year and most of the illegal trade takes place through the Indian border state of West Bengal, says Bimal Pramanik, an independent researcher in Calcutta, India.

"Bangladeshi slaughterhouses cannot source even 1 million cows from within the country. If Indian cows do not reach the Bangladeshi slaughterhouses, there will be a big crisis there," says Mr. Pramanik, adding that 3 out of every 4 cows slaughtered in the country are from India.

"In this thriving trade, [herds of] cows worth 50 billion rupees [$920 million] are sent across to Bangladesh every year. It's the sheer economics of the trade that drives the smuggling," says Pramanik.

Cattle smugglers say they routinely bribe the police, customs, Border Security Force guards, and even some politicians in India to look the other way.

However, locals call this part of the border the "Wall of Death," for the smuggling-related tensions that sometimes turn into violence. In 2012, security forces killed 48 Bangladeshis along the border, according to the Bangladeshi human rights groupAin o Salish Kendra.

But Bangladeshis say there is a simple way to end violence along the border.

"If India begins exporting cows to Bangladesh, such untoward incidents will stop," said the Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Golam Mohammad Quader. "We are really keen to import cows from India, and want all illegal activities involving cow trade across the border to end," he said.

The former head of India's Border Security Forces Utthan Kumar Bansal recently agreed:

"The menace of smuggling might be best controlled if the trade across the border is made legal. The legalization of export of cows could also help curb tension on the volatile border," Mr. Bansal said.

Although Bansal's comment did not trigger any government reaction in India, some right wing Hindu groups said they would never let India export cows to any country.

(Read More: Why Are India's Retailers Afraid of Wal-Mart?)

Radhakanta Saha, who is a World Hindu Organization leader and heads a volunteer group that aims to prevent cow smuggling in West Bengal, said: "The cow is our mother. We shall begin country-wide agitation if India decides to export cows to a country where they are likely to be slaughtered for ... meat."

An Indian Hindu man stands with a holy cow as he waits for alms at Sangam, the confluence of the holy rivers Ganges and Yamuna and mythical Saraswati at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India, last week. Cows are everywhere in India, but the cow is considered holy in the Hindu-majority country.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0126/Cow-smuggling-it-s-how-Bangladesh-gets-its-beef

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100410788

Also Read:

মানব 'পাচারে' বিএসএফ

http://bangla.bdnews24.com/bangladesh/article582824.bdnews

পাচারে মদত বিএসএফেরই, রিপোর্ট ডিজি-র:

সীমান্তে নজরদারির দায়িত্ব যাদের, তাদের মদতেই চলছে পাচার! অন্তত রাজ্য পুলিশ-প্রধানের তেমনই অভিযোগ। মুর্শিদাবাদ সীমান্ত থেকে আসা নথিপত্র-সহ রিপোর্ট পাঠিয়ে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ পুলিশের ডিজি নপরাজিত মুখোপাধ্যায় সরকারকে বলেছেন, বাংলাদেশি দুষ্কৃতীদের সঙ্গে যোগসাজশে এ দেশে অনুপ্রবেশে প্রত্যক্ষ মদত দিচ্ছে সীমান্তরক্ষী বাহিনী (বিএসএফ)-র একাংশ। রাজ্য স্বরাষ্ট্র দফতরে পাঠানো ডিজি'র রিপোর্টের সুপারিশ, সরকার এখনই বিষয়টি নিয়ে বিএসএফ-কর্তৃপক্ষের সঙ্গে কথা বলুক। নচেৎ পশ্চিমবঙ্গের সীমান্ত-এলাকা ক্রমেই মানুষ-মাদক-গরু পাচারের মুক্তাঞ্চল হয়ে উঠবে বলে ডিজি তাঁর রিপোর্টে আশঙ্কা প্রকাশ করেছেন। ডিজি-র 'বিস্ফোরক' রিপোর্টটি পেয়ে মহাকরণের কর্তারা বিএসএফ-কর্তৃপক্ষের সঙ্গে যোগাযোগ করেছেন। বিস্তারিত...

http://www.anandabazar.com/26desh1.html

--------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Mohiuddin Anwar <mohiuddin@netzero.net>

Date: Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 7:25 AM
Subject: [KHABOR] Re: Border killings and Cattle smuggling

Killing humans for cow smuggling is undesirable. Peeper spray or other methods  can be used to stop cow smuggling as being used by BD Police to stop anti-government demonstration. Such way without killing humans for cow,  zero killing target by BSF can be achieved. .We have to remember that

India is earening hunsred's of millions from trhis illegal trade. If those cows arenm't imported to be slaughtered in Bangladesh,

could have died naturally.

 

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
To: Undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Border killings and Cattle smuggling
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2013 06:18:03 -0500

   There's communal politics in the beef!

  Jamaat/BNP wallahs, while shedding buckets of tears on BSF killing Bangladeshis at the India-BD border, never mention the cattle smuggling issue in any detail.


http://news.yahoo.com/cow-smuggling-bangladesh-gets-beef-140005738.html

Cow smuggling ... it's how Bangladesh gets its beef

Beef is a delicacy in Bangladesh, but Hindu-majority India refuses to sell their sacred cows. The demand is so high, however, that a dangerous $920 million cow smuggling trade has popped up.

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