Owners breeze through paltry fines

Rajkot: Stray cattle claiming human lives is not new. In fact, in the recent past, there have been few instances where innocent people have died because of cattle menace. But the civic bodies that are tasked to deal with stray animals say they need stringent laws against cow breeders.
For example, Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) impounds around 600 stray cattle every week, which means more than 80 cattle a day. But these are only 5% of the total cattle released on the roads by their breeders.
Veterinary officer B R Jaksaniya of RMC’s animal menace control department said, “The cattle breeders act smart. They remove the animals from the road just before our team reaches there. The law is not stringent, there is a penalty of only Rs 300 if we file an FIR against the breeders. There is no deterrent factor, as a result of which the breeders are releasing animals on the road.”
Section 90A of Gujarat Police Act says the penalty for allowing cattle to stray on the street or to trespass into a private or public property is one-month imprisonment or fine of Rs 300 or both. For repeated offenders, the penalty is six-month imprisonment or fine of Rs 500 or both.
In case of human death, the owner of the stray cattle is charged under IPC Section 308 that has provision of imprisonment up to three years. But for that, it is important for RMC to prove the ownership of the stray cattle which is not done in many cases.
According to sources, there are around 15,000 stray cattle moving in Rajkot but only 4,000 are registered with RMC and tagged with RFID. This makes RMC staff difficult to establish the ownership of stray cattle.
On December 9, 2022, Rajkot police commissioner had issued a notification asking cattle breeders to get their animals tagged by RMC in 60 days or face the action. According to RMC, after this notification was issued, owners of only 100 animals who wanted to put their animals in the hostel run by RMC came forward for tagging. The other breeders did not take this notification seriously and no action against them was taken by the police or RMC.