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Delhi's cowboys ride urban
range
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Greed often scores over all
else, including religion. The past few days
India's capital city of New Delhi has been witness
to a peculiar sight - cowboys (many on
motorcycles) with lassos spanning the city to
round up cattle. The Indian version of the
Pamplona bull run or the American cattle roundup
has begun following the announcement of a cash
award of US$50 per cow caught, announced by the
Delhi high court to rid the city of the traffic
menace.
The court has been exhorting the
Delhi government for some time to rid the roads of
cows, but without much success. It is estimated
that more than 50,000 cows and buffaloes inundate
the roads along with hordes of monkeys, camels,
pigs and stray dogs, causing traffic jams and
accidents. Traffic routinely comes to a halt on
highways to allow animals to walk, sleep, defecate
and procreate. Animals are sometimes injured, with
carcasses often remaining on the roads.
For years, foreign visitors to New Delhi
never fail to comment on cows that roam Delhi
roads freely. Several foreign dignitaries,
businessmen, film stars, pop singers, sports
people who have visited the country have said that
they never expected to see cows on Indian roads,
especially the national capital. Somehow, it does
not fit into India's image as a global supplier of
scientific manpower, including handling of
computers and software.
Cows and buffaloes
can be spotted everywhere - at the busy Ring Road,
the Race Course Road where the prime minister
lives and Shanti Path, which runs through the
diplomatic enclave. They graze the lawns that
crisscross the wide thoroughfares of India Gate
and the Rashtrapati Bhavan where the president of
India resides.
There has been an
intelligence report that stray dogs that live next
to the prime minister's residence are a potential
hazard as they move in and out of the
high-security zone, given their friendly access to
the security guards. Any one of the dogs can be
stitched up with a remote-controlled bomb. Fed up
with stray dogs that bite, the government of the
northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh has
introduced a shoot-to-kill policy for those
canines running free. Meanwhile, raging bulls have
gored several people to death in New Delhi.
The existence of cows in particular is the
result of several factors - as Delhi has
developed, several erstwhile villages have fallen
in the ambit of metropolitan areas. Land that the
cows and buffaloes once roamed freely to graze was
converted to an urban landscape. Owners have no
choice but to let their cattle out to fend for
themselves. There are also several instances of
cattle being left loose once they are old and
useless.
One reason authorities in Delhi
and several cities and towns in India have been
unable to launch a crusade to rid themselves of
vagabond cattle is religion. Cows remain a very
touchy subject due to religious sentiments. The
animal is revered by the Hindus, addressed as Gau
Mata (meaning, the cow is like a mother). Indian
history has several instances of Hindu-Muslim
riots erupting over cows being slaughtered,
sometimes deliberately to incite violence. Hindus
do not eat cow meat, unlike lamb or chicken that
is slaughtered. The latter are usually not seen on
the streets.
But apart from religion there
are other factors that complicate the task, not
least the animal rights activists who make it a
point to criticize any government action or
inaction. Indians in general are animal lovers and
often adopt several stray dogs and cows, putting
up a stiff resistance to municipal authorities who
try and remove them.
Further, Indians are
notorious about flouting laws. Laws have been
enacted against known infringements, as is the
norm internationally. There are fines for noise
pollution, littering, talking on the cell phone
while driving, not wearing seat belts - even one
against urinating in public, which was
strengthened after a person was found easing his
bladder on the wall of the house of the municipal
commissioner of Delhi.
Some analysts have
said that apart from a general lack of discipline,
Indians break these minor laws as it gives them a
sense of freedom, and doing what they want is in
keeping with democratic traditions. It is often
observed that Indians living abroad who follow
rules by the book, change dramatically when in
India, off-loading empty ice cream/pizza/cola
packets even as they drive. Despite the existence
of more than 250 free public urinals in New Delhi,
most Indians prefer to relieve themselves on the
roadside.
From time to time the
authorities try and clamp down, but the task is
huge given the population and cannot be sustained
over a period of time. Nobody has yet been hauled
up for urinating in public.
However, to
the credit of the New Delhi authorities, they have
found solutions to some of the other animal
problems. A couple of langurs (bigger-sized white
monkeys) are tied every day to the forecourts of
the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the adjoining north and
south blocks that house the main government
(including the prime minister's and home
minister's offices) as well as military offices.
The langurs keep a check on the smaller Indian
brown rhesus monkeys that are a menace in the
area, biting government officials, running away
with secret files and entering the inner precincts
of offices and the president's quarters.
Another practice by government offices,
especially at the income tax branch and the Delhi
Development Authority (that deals with land
allotment and development in the capital) has been
to assiduously and officially cultivate cats. This
is to keep away mice from nibbling on the reams of
paperwork that have to be stored - in the face of
slow computerization of government offices.
The latest order on cows with the
attendant cash awards seems to have caught the
imagination of the people and could also be a
success. The response has been akin to hordes
logging onto game shows, lucky dips and quiz
contests with fabulous awards. But, a hitch has
been reported as some have been buying cheap cows
from anywhere to win the higher cash award. The
authorities now insist that there should be some
proof of where the cattle belong. Such paper work
for stray animals is very difficult.
However, the court order on cows is a
reflection of the systemic changes that are taking
place in New Delhi in contrast to major cities
such as Mumbai. With the unprecedented rains in
Mumbai, the city has been under siege. But Delhi
has changed in the past few years - roads have
been ramped up, flyovers built, an underground
metro constructed, buses put on clean fuel and
illegal development of land curtailed. The
difference between the two cities is that Delhi
has its own elected government with elected mayors
- just like the major cities of the world.
Mumbai's interests (as also Bangalore in Karnataka
or Chennai in Tamil Nadu) are diluted as the
responsibility is with the government of the
state.
India has a long way to go.
Comparisons of Mumbai with Shanghai or Gurgaon
with Singapore are quite far fetched. For now, it
is back to the cowboys.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd.
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