ALIGARH: Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a strange problem. The entire city administration for the past few days is busy with only one thing: dealing with stray cattle situation in rural areas. The villagers say it’s “alarming”.Protesting farmers are taking stray cattle to nearby government buildings, such as primary schools and hospitals, and locking them up there.The protest started when a group of farmers from Tamotia village in Iglas division locked up around 500 stray cattle at a primary school, forcing the school to remain shut for two days. The district administration, including the DM, came into action on Monday evening and rescued the cattle, moving them to state-sponsored cow shelters, called gaushalas.But the problem escalated like a wildfire, with farmers from all the villages locking up stray cattle in nearby government buildings. After Tamotia, similar incidents happened in Ahraula village of Khair division, where farmers put up cattle in a village school. Another village, Edalpur in Sadabad division, also witnessed a similar incident. Other villages, such as Rajipur, Datua Nagaria, Saipur and others, followed suit.“After Tamotia, farmers locking up stray cattle in government offices became a trend,” says Aligarh DM Chandra Bhushan Singh.In Gorai, farmers locked around 500 cattle at a primary health centre, forcing it to shut for a day. The police could only rescue them by late Tuesday evening, shifting them to the Tappal gaushala. On Wednesday, around a dozen incidents of locking up cattle in government buildings were reported.Over the past one and half years, cattle crisis has increased manifold. Because of extra vigilance from the government and gau raksha samiti’s, moving cattle from one place to another has become extremely difficult.Brij Mohan Singh, a Saipur farmer, said: “Cows and bulls have destroyed more than 200 bighas of our wheat crop in the past one month.” In Saipur village, around 200 cattle have been locked up at a primary school campus. “The police came in the afternoon and told us to free them and warned us of strong action. But how can we let these cows damage our crop.”“This is a problem created by farmers themselves,” says Iglas (Aligarh) SDM Ashok Kumar Sharma. “Once a cow stops giving milk they leave it on the streets. Over a period, the number has really gone up.”The DM said around 2,000 cattle have been shifted to 12 gaushalas in the past three days. “But the gaushalas have a limit and we can’t force more cattle there. We are making arrangements for cow sanctuaries, but all this will take around two months. Till then farmers should cooperate.”“In one month, our Rabi crop will be damaged and destroyed,” said Hari Bhan Singh, village pradhan of Bas Sudama panchayat in Aligarh, “If their facilities come up in two months, it will be of no use to us.”The district administration is constantly holding meetings with pradhans and seeking help. “It’s a huge challenge. We have to rescue cattle and transport them to overflowing gaushalas, which are almost 50 km away from villages. The villagers will have to cooperate, otherwise we will be forced to take strong action,” threatened Iglas SDM Sharma.