A 15-year-old boy died when his motorbike collided with a stray bull in Shamli district in western Uttar Pradesh on Sunday night.
The police said the incident happened when the boy was on his way to pick his father up from the local railway station. The bull also died in the collision.
The deceased, identified as Sohail, son of Naushad, lived in the Adarsh Mandi police station area with his family. “As Sohail was coming out of the village on the motorbike, a bull hit him. We came to know about the incident half an hour later, around 10 p.m.,” said Wasim, Sohail’s uncle. “We took him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead,” he said.
No isolated incident
This is not an isolated incident involving stray cattle in Shamli, said Mr. Wasim. A few months ago, four persons got injured after being hit by a stray bull. “There is a mandi (market) in this area where all stray animals, especially bulls, roam around and hit motorists and pedestrians at times. The administration does not take any action, putting the life of residents in danger,” he said.
The family demanded that the district administration take immediate steps to deal with the rising stray cattle population in the area.
When asked, Shamli District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh told The Hindu that at present they do not have any facility to house stray cattle. “There is a policy of the State government to develop shelters for stray cattle. It is a long-term policy. It will take one year to get such a facility in Shamli.”
