BOKAKHAT: On Wednesday, 41 cattle heads total were seized in Golaghat district. They were rescued from a container truck that was travelling from Bokakhat to Nagaon's Samaguri.
Smugglers changed their method of transporting cattle after multiple incidents in Assam where cattle heads were taken from trucks and other vehicles.
However, the truck's driver has been detained by the police in connection with the seizure.
In a similar incident, 32 cattle heads were taken in a large haul by Assam police earlier this month from four vehicles in the Sivasagar district.
Seven cattle traffickers may have been detained in connection with the capture.
The four trucks were stopped, according to sources, as they travelled from Silapathar to Nagaon.
It is discovered that despite the police spotting another truck with animals, it was able to escape the area.
Additionally, the police in Assam's Golaghat district last month confiscated 47 animals in total from a truck.
A team of police officers from the Bokakhat Police Station stopped the truck after receiving information about illegal cattle transportation. They recovered 48 cattle heads from the truck, one of which was in critically bad condition.
Despite strict laws, arrests, and other actions taken to stop it, cattle smuggling appears to have persisted in Assam. The smugglers are now using new techniques to transport cattle from one place to another.
Cattle smuggling networks existed in the south and north Bengal regions of India's eastern borders between 2011 and 2019. They have relocated their bases during the past three years to several locations in Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura.
Earlier, when Assam was experiencing a catastrophic flood, livestock traffickers used the unfenced section of the India-Bangladesh border to transport cattle heads to the neighboring nation in preparation for Eid celebrations.
Assam Police detected more than 1100 incidents of livestock smuggling in the last year, according to government statistics.
The Assam Cow Preservation Act, 2021 was passed in the assembly last year, giving the police the authority to enter the home of an accused person and inspect, search, and seize any property they may have purchased during the previous six years using proceeds from the illegal cattle trade.
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