UP River Shock Over 60 cow carcasses floating among residents of Sitapur, investigation ordered

The carcasses of more than 60 cows have mysteriously appeared in the Sarayan river in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district in the past 72 hours, leaving officials scratching their heads as to the cause of the deaths.

A day after a team of 35 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel fished out the carcasses of about 30 cows and other cattle from the river during a seven-hour rescue operation on Wednesday, the carcasses of about six cows resurfaced water surface. . Currently, the UP government has set up a team to investigate the matter and seek explanations from the block officials.

Residents of Sitapur Navaya village on the riverbank were the first to discover the body on Monday. “People were busy doing their daily chores when some people found dead bodies floating in the river. It was an unusual sight,” said village chief Dinesh Yadav.

People said they rushed to the local police station to report the body, and soon the news spread like wildfire, with hundreds of people from nearby villages gathering at the scene, causing chaos on the Naimish-Siduri road.

“We were born and raised by the river but we have never seen a site like this in the past. It’s horrific. We want to know how such a large number of bodies got into the river. This matter should be investigated and the perpetrators punished, ” said Kanhaiya Lal, another local from Navaya.

The local government took immediate action after receiving the news and launched a salvage operation. However, the vehicle failed to take off on Monday due to poor lighting conditions and a lack of manpower. “On Tuesday, we restarted the drive and pressed in four JCBs, but they failed to reach the body in the middle of the river. Subsequently, a team of SDRF was sent to conduct a rescue operation,” Sitapur District Magistrate (ADM) Nitti Nitish Kumar Singh said.

Officials said it took nearly seven hours for 35 personnel from two SDRF teams deployed from Bareilly and Lucknow to complete the rescue operation. After the autopsy was completed, the body was buried on the river bank, officials said.

The veterinary team who conducted the autopsy also seemed to have no clue as to the cause of death. “It was difficult to determine the animal’s cause of death as the skin and organs were in poor condition due to excessive decay,” said a veterinarian on the team.

Following the order of Anuj Singh, Sitapur District Magistrate, Sitapur Chief Development Officer (CDO), Nidhi Bansal, issued the order to two blocks of Development Officer (BDO) and Assistant Development Officer (ADO) issued notices and sought explanations for the same.

The regional government has also set up a committee to look into the issue.

Apart from the cattle carcasses found in Sarajan, around 22 cattle carcasses were also found in the Gomti river flowing through the area on the same day. On Wednesday afternoon, another shocking incident occurred when Sarajan once again found at least six bodies floating in the water.

This is not the first time that cow carcasses have been found floating in rivers in Uttar Pradesh despite strict measures taken by the government to protect cows. In February 2022, around 37 cow carcasses were found in the Kali and Ganga rivers in Kanauj.

In November 2023, the Uttar Pradesh government ordered a state-wide cow census to be conducted in three categories, including identifying the number of cattle rearers, abandoned cows on streets and poor animals in Kanha Upvans. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also ordered the implementation of geo-tagging. Currently, 11.85 lakh cattle in 6,889 poor cattle farms are under protection and more than 1.85 lakh cattle have been handed over to gau sevaks under ‘Mukhyamantri Sahbhagita Yojana’ for cattle protection.