Cows graze in restricted zone

Cattle farmer Nurul Islam from Saydabad village in Sirajganj regularly takes his nineteen cows to a wide grassy field on the bank of the Jamuna River to graze. It might sound like a welcome rustic scene from a novel, but the field is beside the Bangabandhu Bridge. Part of a key point installation, the area is restricted. Yet Nurul is hardly alone; many local farmers do the same. Aware of the problem of a lack of pasture for livestock, law enforcers tolerate the activity.

“Eight of the cows are mine and the rest I look after for other people,” says Nurul. “The field near the bridge is good for fodder since it is government land and nobody will disturb us.”

According to the officer-in-charge of Bangabandhu Bridge West Zone Police Station, Shahid Alam, the land on either side of the bridge belongs to the bridge authority, with the forest department responsible for forestation projects. “It is a restricted area,” he admits, “but the cattle farmers go there due to the lack of fodder elsewhere.”

The site hosts several hundred cattle every day, arriving from farms up to five kilometres away of a morning, to feed until returning home of an afternoon. Farmers stay with their herds in the restricted area, not least to keep the animals off the busy highway.

“We have to take our cattle there to feed,” says Samina Khatun, also from Saydabad, who has four cows. “Our livelihoods depend on our livestock. And we have to stay there to protect them.”

“To buy ready-feed for our cattle is too expensive,” says another farmer, Kashem Ali.

“We are bound to bring them to this area, although it is restricted.”

“Law enforcers do keep watch on the cattle farmers and their livestock,” says Shahid Alam. “It requires extra effort in providing security for the bridge, but we don't often move them on since they are too poor to buy cattle feed and there just aren't other areas nearby that could serve as an alternative for them.”