People of Nangar village under Chhumig Gewog in Bumthang are distressed by frequently losing their cattle after letting them graze in nearby forests. This has been happening for about 5 years now and people have started suspecting miscreants over cattle raiding and illegal slaughter.
The Chhumig Gewog administration raised the issue during the recent Dzongkhag Tsogdu session.
In the last 5 years, farmers of Nangar have lost more than 15 oxen from their grazing area, which is between their village and Kikila. This year alone, villagers have lost 4 oxen, which are now suspected to have been raided and slaughtered by some miscreants in the locality. Most of their cattle graze around Kikila, a hilltop between Chhumig and Chamkhar where Bumthang’s waste disposal site is also located. Some of them scavenge garbage at the landfill site and some graze along the roadside. These places are from where most of the cattle have been going missing.
“Last winter, during snowfall, I let my oxen graze in the forest around Kikila. I went to look for them when the snow stopped after a few days and I found them with white ropes tied around their heads. That’s how the situation is here now. Farmers like us are constantly losing our oxen. Such incidents were not there in the past. It has been about 7 years now that cases are becoming quite common. We lose at least 2 oxen a year but this year we have lost 4 already,” said Lekey Dorji, a farmer from Nangar in Chhumig, Bumthang.
“When we go to the forest looking for our oxen, we usually have to come back without finding any traces of them let alone seeing them for real. We don’t know if they are slaughtered, as we have not caught anyone harming our cattle red-handed. Without our oxen, we have to till our fields by ourselves manually with the help of some workers. I have lost 2 oxen within a year. This is really distressing,” added Phurba, also from the same village.
During the recent Dzongkhag Tsogdu session, a representative from Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority (BAFRA) office in Bumthang said they didn’t receive any such complaints of alleged cattle raiding and illegal slaughter from the people of Nangar. BAFRA officials also added that they have been conducting patrols across Bumthang to check such incidences but they haven’t come across any so far. However, the authority is going to conduct investigations into such matters if they receive complaints from the cattle owners, hereafter.
In recent years, several incidents of cattle theft have been reported in all four Gewogs of Bumthang. In May 2017, a meat shop owner in Chamkhar and 4 other accomplices were charged for illegal slaughter of four oxen on four separate incidents. According to the Penal Code of Bhutan, such acts are considered criminal offences and culprits are liable for value-based sentencing.
Kipchu
