By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Cross-border cattle smuggling, which is a highly lucrative trade, has been steadily increasing over the years, thanks mainly to the manpower crisis in the Customs department which has woefully fallen short of controlling the illegal trade.
Rampant smuggling of cattle is taking place along the international border in the East Khasi Hills sector with reports of at least 15 to 20 vehicles loaded with cattle passing through the Pynursla route to Bangladesh on a daily basis.
Sources from the Customs, while admitting to the cross-border cattle smuggling, stated that the department has a huge drawback in the form of less manpower which is preventing it from keeping a tab on the smuggling of cattle from Meghalaya to Bangladesh.
The sources informed that only five Customs personnel are deployed in Pynursla sector comprising of parts of East Khasi Hills and Jaintia hills districts to check the illegal trade.
“There is only one Superintendent, two Inspectors and two sepoys who are manning the large sector,” the sources said on the request of anonymity.
What is surprising is that the department has only one vehicle which is also presently out of order. The Customs personnel posted in the area are using their own vehicles to perform their official duties.
The sources also informed that the Customs department at the State level has already urged the Centre to sanction more posts and provide more infrastructure so that the personnel can carry out their duties effectively.
It may be mentioned that the State Police, BSF and Customs have set up a joint check post near the Pynursla police station to check the illegal cattle trade, but smugglers have begun using internal village roads to cross over to Bangladesh with their stock of cattle.
Sources revealed that the smugglers operating from their hideouts in Laitlyngkot would transport the cattle on trucks till Wah Umkhat near Pynursla from where the cattle would be herded on foot through the road behind the petrol pump near the PHE Pynursla Water Supply project to a spot behind the Pynursla betel nut market.
The smugglers would then hide the cattle until late in the night before loading them again into the trucks.
The loaded trucks would then move out from the place after midnight to Nongshken, from where the cattle are transported to Bangladesh on foot through the border villages of Hat Thymmai, Lyngkhat, Umiuh and Nongjri.
The sources further revealed that some local villagers are also involved in the racket and whenever Customs sleuths seize cattle then some local politicians would interfere and ask them to release the cattle.
The sources, however, pointed out that cattle smuggling along the East Khasi Hills sector has gone down in the past few years since most of the illegal cattle trade is done through the West Bengal sector bordering Bangladesh.