Pernem: Loitering stray cattle has turned into a nuisance and haunts motorists in Pernem. Large herds of bovines squat in the middle of the road along the National Highway 66 causing inconvenience to commuters and often resulting in mishaps and fatal accidents.
At nights in the absence of lights, speeding vehicles often run over cattle that sit in the middle of the road often killing them. The dead animals are let to rot around leaving an unbearable stench.
Although the Department of Animal Husbandry has supplied the Pernem municipality a vehicle for impounding the stray bovines, the problem of cattle straying on the roads has remained unsolved till date and the situation goes from bad to worse each passing day.
Sources say there the cattle pound here is unutilised due to financial constraints and the animals keep loitering the streets creating a nuisance.
“Earlier bulls were used for farming, however with mechanisation, tractors have taken over as work gets done faster as a result of which cattle are abandoned and let to wander around with the strays increasing in strength and number by the roadside,” said a farmer.
Another farmer said that was cattle business was no longer profitable.
Though there are heated discussions on the issue at every gramsabha, no concrete solution has been found to the vexatious issue till date.
“All panchayats and the municipality should penalise the owners who let their animals wander around and the strays should be keep at the pound,” Arjun Gad, a local said.
“There is need for cattle a pound in the taluka and all the panchayats should join hands to solve the issue as the situation is getting bad every day,” another local Rupesh Naik said.
