Border guarding force SSB has been awarded for effectively clamping down on the menace of cattle smuggling along India's open frontier with Nepal.
A special decoration called the 'Leadership in Animal Welfare Award 2015' was presented by Union Minister for Women and Child Welfare Maneka Gandhi to Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Director General B D Sharma yesterday.
Sharma, who is credited for implementing some of the best practices in country's border guarding domain during his stint in BSF and now in SSB, dedicated the award to his troops and personnel deployed on the ground along the 1,751-km long Indo-Nepal border and also along the frontier with Bhutan.
The SSB, under Sharma, deployed special tactics to prevent the smuggling of cattle and birds being taken across the border for sacrificing them during the 'Gadhimai Mela' in Nepal last year.
The DG, a West Bengal cadre IPS officer, was earlier asked by the Supreme Court to devise methods to check smuggling of livestock across the borders and was later complimented for the task by the apex court.
Gandhi, who runs an animal welfare organisation - People for Animals (PFA), lauded the forces' efforts during the event held yesterday in collaboration with the Humane Society International.
Referring to the Gadhimai festival, where thousands of animals are sacrificed as part of a ritual, she had said the apex Court's active intervention had resulted in reduction of exodus of animals from India.
"100 per cent of the animals came from India and there was a huge exodus of animals. We (PFA) were successful to the point that we reduced it from 4 lakh to 30,000.
"Infrastructure is being put in to stop smuggling of animals into Nepal for the purpose of slaughter and this will apply to Bangladesh as well and to all our borders. The fallout is that Nepal has announced that it would not hold Gadhimai festival anymore," she had said.
The SSB is not only the mandated border guarding force along Nepal and Bhutan but it is also the lead intelligence gathering agency on these two frontiers which are notorious for the movements of terrorists, insurgents and for the illegal trade of narcotics and fake Indian currency.
