With no initiative in sight to break the deadlock over a ban on transportation of cattle to Kerala following the spread of foot-and-mouth disease in Tamil Nadu, survival of more than 2,000 head of cattle, corralled at Goodalur, Cumbum and Cumbum Mettu in Theni district, has become bleak.
With acute shortage of water and fodder, cattle traders have been struggling to protect them for the past 25 days.
“We cannot keep a large number of cattle for more than two days owing to lack of facilities. We stock cattle at Cumbum and Goodalur on Tuesday and Wednesday and send them to Mundakayyam market in Kerala on Thursday,” says cattle trader M.P. Abbas.
Cattle trade in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu has come to a standstill owing to the ban, as Kerala is the prime market. Traders procure 80 cent of cattle from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and the rest from Tamil Nadu. With no income, farmers too struggle to maintain sterile animals.
Cattle traders do good business on three occasions – Bakrid, Christmas and New Year.
“We have lost two peak sale seasons,” says S. Selvam, another trader in Cumbum. Each trader has locked up about Rs three to four lakh in cattle trade.
For the trader, maintenance cost is also high, as one animal needs feed worth Rs.150 a day.
Sterile cattle lose weight if corralled for a long time. The ban is strictly enforced by officials in Kerala. Recently, a cattle-laden lorry was seized and produced before a court. But the cattle were left on the border with Tamil Nadu.
