CANACONA: Anger is brewing against stray cattle here as the bovines give nightmares to locals and commuters by squatting all along the road at nights.
The animals have grown in strength and number and keep wandering all over the streets and highways causing hindrance to traffic movement and at times also cause accidents, say locals.
Chandrakant Dessai, a local from Pansule, stated that several accidents have occurred here and riding a bike at nights has become a risky business. Locals said that the majority of cattle are unproductive and abandoned by their owners and this forces them to wander all over the place to forage for food while there were some owners who milked the animals and then let them loose.
A herder appointed by the Cancona Municipal Council to look after stray cattle, has expressed helplessness to handle the situation in view of the burgeoning population.
During daytime, the herder drives away the stray animals that come to the market. However, he is finding it difficult to control the animals as the market area is quite big for a single person to handle.
Customers complained that the stray animals gorge on foodstuff on placed on their parked bikes. Shivraj Deshmukh, Deputy Sarpanch Shristhal stated, “About six cows died after consuming plastic last week. They were later buried using a JCB machine.
“The government has appealed to send stray cattle to the gaushalas and has also increased the honorarium of panch members. Now it’s time for the government to assign the task of handling the stray cattle to them,” said
Punaji Gaonkar, a senior citizen from Asali-Cancona.
