Beef
is a delicacy in Bangladesh ,
but Hindu-majority India
refuses to sell their sacred cows. The demand is so high, however, that a
dangerous $920 million cow smuggling trade has popped up.
In
Muslim majority Bangladesh
beef is in high demand.
More
than 90 percent of the 160 million people who live there are Muslims and for
them beef is a delicacy.
The
country's meat producers estimate that slaughterhouses
need up to 3 million cows every year to feed
Bangladeshi appetites, and to help meet demand, Bangladesh is eyeing neighboring India .
Cows are everywhere in India , but the cow
is considered holy in the Hindu-majority country. In fact, slaughtering cows is
banned in many Indian states, and New
Delhi refuses to export them.
That
refusal hasn't done much to deter the demand for beef in Bangladesh , however. In fact, say
officials in Dhaka , beef has become so
valuable it's spurred a dangerous cow smuggling trade across the
India-Bangladesh border.
More
than 2 million cows are smuggled from India
to Bangladesh every year and
most of the illegal trade takes place through the Indian border state of West
Bengal, says Bimal Pramanik, an independent researcher in Calcutta , India .
“Bangladeshi
slaughterhouses cannot source even 1 million cows from within the country. If
Indian cows do not reach the Bangladeshi slaughterhouses, there will be a big
crisis there,” says Mr. Pramanik, adding that 3 out of every 4 cows slaughtered
in the country are from India .
“In
this thriving trade, [herds of] cows worth 50 billion rupees [$920 million] are
sent across to Bangladesh
every year. It’s the sheer economics of the trade that drives the smuggling,”
says Pramanik.
Cattle
smugglers say they routinely bribe the police, customs, Border Security Force
guards, and even some politicians in India to look the other way.
However,
locals call this part of the border the “Wall of Death,” for the
smuggling-related tensions that sometimes turn into violence. In 2012, security
forces killed 48 Bangladeshis along the border, according to the Bangladeshi
human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra.
But
Bangladeshis say there is a simple way to end violence along the border.
"If
India begins exporting cows
to Bangladesh ,
such untoward incidents will stop," said the Bangladeshi Commerce Minister
Golam Mohammad Quader. "We are really keen to import cows from India ,
and want all illegal activities involving cow trade across the border to
end," he said.
The
former head of India 's
Border Security Forces Utthan Kumar Bansal recently agreed: “The menace of
smuggling might be best controlled if the trade across the border is made
legal. The legalization of export of cows could also help curb tension on the
volatile border,” Mr. Bansal said.
Although
Bansal’s comment did not trigger any government reaction in India , some right wing Hindu groups said they
would never let India
export cows to any country.
Radhakanta
Saha, who is a World Hindu Organization leader and heads a volunteer group that
aims to prevent cow smuggling in West Bengal ,
said: “The cow is our mother. We shall begin country-wide agitation if India
decides to export cows to a country where they are likely to be slaughtered for
... meat.”
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