Authorities in Arakan State seize scores of smuggled cattle destined for Bangladesh

By Admin 12 Sep 2023

DMG Newsroom
12 September 2023, Sittwe
 
More than 250 head of cattle intended to be smuggled across the border from Arakan State to Bangladesh were seized from June 8 to September 11, according to Rakhine Daily, a mouthpiece of the Arakan State military council.
 
A total of 254 cows — 50 from Buthidaung, 23 from Maungdaw, 65 from Pauktaw, 77 from Thandwe, 29 from Taungup and 10 from Gwa — were seized.
 
Twenty-three smugglers were also arrested, and have been charged under the 2012 Essential Supplies and Services Law. Among them are six people from Maungdaw, two from Buthidaung, one from Sittwe, six from Kyaukphyu, two from Taungup and six from Thandwe.
 
Cattle are smuggled either overland or by sea as they fetch good prices in Bangladesh.
 
Cattle, once instrumental for farming in Arakan State, have been increasingly replaced by agricultural machinery.
 
“Today, farmers mainly use tractors for farming, and cows are only raised for selling,” said farmer U Thar Tun Sein from Tharyargon Village in Maungdaw Township.
 
Successive governments failed to create a market for cattle husbandry in Arakan State, and locals therefore sell their cattle to Bangladesh, which offers good prices, said residents.
 
“I think there was a plan to officially export cattle. I don’t know if it still exists,” said business owner U Khin Maung Gyi from Arakan State. “If there is no official market for export, smuggling will continue to exist.”
 
A cattle farmer from Gyitchaung Village in Maungdaw said: “As the government does not create a [favourable] market for us to sell cattle, we have to sell them illegally. We have to pay a lot of tax to the government if we are to sell on the official market, and we don’t get good prices either.”
 
In Arakan State, an ox sells for around 1.3 million kyats and a cow sells for about 800,000 kyats, with prices varying depending on size.
 
Thousands of cattle were killed by Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall over Arakan State on May 14.