23,869 smuggled cattles from WB seized so far this yr: Centre

About 23,869 cattles smuggled from West Bengal have been seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) so far this year, the government informed Parliament on Tuesday.

North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda, Nadia and Dakshin Dinajpur in West Bengal and Dhubri in Assam are the most affected areas for cattle smuggling, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Sanjeev Kumar Balyan said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Placing the data before the Lower House, Balyan said a total of 23,869 smuggled cattles from West Bengal were seized till June 30 of this year by BSF and SSB.

Out of this, 23,208 cattles were seized from Indo-Bangladesh Border by BSF and the remaining 661 were seized by SSB from Indo-Nepal Border, he said.

However, the anti-smuggling unit of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBITC) has not booked any case or seized any cattle so far during the current fiscal.

The Minister said that 1,30,221 smuggled cattles from West Bengal were seized by BSF and SSB during 2016, 88,365 cattles in 2017 and 52,284 cattles in 2018.

Highlighting the measures being taken to curb cattle smuggling, Balyan said the central government is regularly monitoring the implementation of recommendations of a committee set up in pursuance of Supreme Court's direction.