Cattle Trade Rises In Southwestern Frontier

Thousands of cows are being brought into the country everyday for sales ahead of Eid-ul-Azha; Traders ignore death trap of crossing border for making good profit

- Wafiur Rahman

The entire area of Putkhali in Sharsha upazila has turned into cowsheds these days. Most homesteads, backyards and some open spaces are being used for keeping cattle that have come here travelling hundreds of kilometers in another country. All day long and even at dead of night, traders are coming with hundreds of cattle heads in the market. Innumerable buyers and their local agents are flocking into the cattle market encircled by a road of about 4 kilometers in Putkhali union, one of the largest entry points of cattle smuggled into Bangladesh from India.

This was the situation in the area even in the first half of August, a month before the Eid-ul-Azha that marks slaughtering of millions of domestic animals as religious sacrifice by Muslims in Bangladesh. Nowadays, Putkhali trading point, known for smuggling of drugs, arms and other Indian goods, witnesses transactions of millions of Taka daily, between Bangladeshi traders and their Indian agents although there is no formal arrangement for paying for importing cattle from India.

Thousands of cattle are lined up for sales at different points on both sides of the border. Cattle trade is booming in each and every border point of possible entry of cattle in southwestern region stretching from Shyamnagar of Satkhira to Daulatpur of Kushtia and innumerable cows and buffalos have been brought into the country at high risks in many cases to make good business out of the coming Eid festival. Conspicuously, the cattle are legalised in Bangladesh like lost and found domestic animals through a broader understanding between authorities of the two countries.