Bull fury in Bihar town over honking

Incessant honking is one peeve motorists in India have learned to live with but makes this beast a raging bull in a china shop.

A bull in Bihar's Hajipur town has taken national and international media by storm with its fierce response to honking as furiously overturns cars and topples two-wheelers.

A two-day-old video footage of it lifting a car by the horns has gone viral and was flashed on a platform no less than the Fox News and some national and regional television channels, prompting the Vaishali district administration to sit up and take notice of the bovine menace.

Its apparent monstrosity notwithstanding, the raging bull seems to have drawn some inspiration in its own way from the non-violence preached by the Buddha and Mahavira, both of whom had deep links with Vaishali.

Surprisingly, locals say, the beast has so far attacked only inanimate objects and never a living being, including humans. No amount of beating the ground with sticks and hurling stones scares it away, but the animal cools down when sprinkled with water and retreats.

"The bull is known to quietly roam around until it gets irritated by honking. Sometimes it flies into a rage because of constant troubling by local youths who try to feed it with hemp and enjoy the madness on display thereafter," a Hajipur resident said.

District Magistrate Udita Singh told journalists eager to now what steps were being taken to keep people out of the harm's way that orders were issued to the forest department on Tuesday to cow it into submission.

"We have taken serious note of the menace. Damage to property cannot be allowed and there is a risk of people also getting hit as mostly the bull has been said to run amok on crowded streets adjacent to the railway station," she said.

The forest department, however, is reluctant to take the bull by the horns.

"We don't understand why the district administration expects us to get involved since the bull is not, strictly speaking, a wild animal. Bulls are left to roam freely on the streets after they serve their purpose of mating with cows," said district forest officer Bharat Bhushan Pal.

Pal said even if the bull is caught it will have to be dispatched to some other inhabited area where fresh trouble may arise.

The forest official said it would be better if the animal husbandry department takes care of the untamed beast as bulls are always in demand for keeping the bovine population ticking.

Until then anybody who messes with this bull will get the horns.