In another incident of neglect in cow shelters, over 200 cows died in two days because of starvation and lack of proper care in a gaushala in Rajpur in Chattisgarh, as villagers claimed on Friday.
BJP leader, Harish Verma, runs by the gaushala. He has been running it for the past seven years.
However, Verma defended charges that were alleged against him. He said that he had been seeking financial support for the shelter from the state government for the past two years but all his efforts went in vain.
Speaking to the media, Verma said, “My cow shelter is overcrowded. There are more than 650 cows against the capacity of 220. I had intimated the government many times that I am not able to feed them, but all went in vain. More than Rs. 10 lakh meant for the cow shelter is pending with the government and they have not granted it till now. I am not guilty for the deaths”.
Rajput’s sarpanch, Pati Sevaram Sahu, alleged that he found many trenches were being dug to bury the dead cows lying around, which made them suspicious.
“We noticed J.C. Bamford (JCB) machines operating near the cow shelter two days ago and informed media persons. When we reached here, we found that many trenches were being dug to bury the dead cows lying around. The cows buried near the shelter are yet to be exhumed,” he said.
Later, Dhamda block sub-divisional magistrate, Rajesh Patre, visited the shelter and confirmed the deaths. He said that the cows died either due to starvation or lack of proper care.
“A four-member team led by deputy director of animal husbandry was constituted to probe into the causes of death and the reports of post-mortem. We have done post mortem for the cows, reports are awaited but prima facie it seems proper care of the cows was not taken. The exact death figures are yet to ascertained and an investigation was on”, he said.
“Villagers claimed that more than 200 cows died in last few days because of lack of fodder, which seems to be true. We will submit a detailed report to the district magistrate and action would be taken accordingly,” Patre added.
