With increased surveillance, cattle smuggling is down but border forces are ill-equipped to shelter animals

Cattle smuggling on the south Bengal-Bangladesh border, considered the most porous along India’s entire eastern boundary, has declined over the past few years, but there has been a rise in the seizure of narcotics, particularly “Yaba tablets”, along the same border.

Yaba, considered a big menace in Bangladesh, is a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine sold as cheap red or pink pills. While not much of it was seized in 2018, the South Bengal Frontier of the Border Security Force (BSF) recorded seizure of over 42,023 tablets in 2019. Moreover, in only 24 days of January 2020, about 10,000 Yaba tablets were seized along the same border.

The smuggling of cattle along the South Bengal Frontier dropped from 39,965 heads of cattle in 2018 to 31,210 in 2019, and till January 24, 2020, 1,301 heads of cattle had been seized along the border.

While cattle smuggling takes place from India to Bangladesh, Yaba is usually smuggled from Bangladesh to India.

Increased surveillance

“There has been increased surveillance along the border, so the smuggling of large articles like cattle has fallen and [the smuggling of] narcotics, which can be easily carried, has increased,” said a senior BSF official of South Bengal frontier

There has also been an increase in the illegal trade of cough syrup Phensydl, which is smuggled largely from India to Bangladesh. In 2018, 1.39 lakh units of Phensydl were seized along the international border; this increased to 2.12 lakh units in 2019.

The BSF’s South Bengal Frontier, with jurisdiction that extends from Sunderbans in the south to Malda district in the north, guards 913 km of the international boundary. About 35% of the border is riverine, making it the most porous border along the whole eastern theatre.

Tending to animals

Additionally, border forces are grappling with the problem of housing seized cattle. Data available for seized cattle till the end of 2019 shows that personnel are tending to 1,700 heads of cattle in different border outposts (BOPs) along the Frontier. The cattle with the BSF is almost 6%-7% of all the seized livestock.

“In many of the BOPs, we have accommodated the cattle, but you have understand that BSF personnel are not trained to tend to cattle,” another BSF official said.

Prior to 2018, seized cattle along the border were handed over to the Customs Department, but following a Supreme Court order, they now have to be handed over to the police. According to BSF officials, in certain areas of the State, the police are “reluctant” to take the responsibility of seized cattle, and the BSF has to depend on non-governmental organisations (NGO) that can house cattle in sheds. Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, an NGO wrote to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over the death of cattle in the BSF’s custody.