Buyers from different parts of the country are thronging the cattle markets in the district with a hope to buy Indian cattle at lower prices but going back home having failed to manage ones.

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) imposes section 144 along the border here every evening and strengthens patrol to stop cattle smuggling from India, said Kurigram 22 BGB commanding officer Lt Col Md Jamal Hossain.

Visiting Bhurungamari cattle haat, the UNB correspondent found that the market is full of locally-reared cattle but few customers are buying those due to the higher prices.

Abdul Khaleq, Rabiul Hossain and some other buyers at the market said the prices of cattle are excessive as the wholesalers collected the cattle from farmers at high prices. 

Sources at the District Livestock office said sacrificial animals are being sold at 28 cattle markets in the district as the district has got some 1,000 farms.

Besides, they said, 42,000 livestock farmers have brought sacrificial animals to the local markets.

There is a stock of 1.5 lakh sacrificial animals in the district and there will be no shortage even if cattle are not imported from India, they said.

The prices of locally-raised sacrificial animals are also reasonable, the livestock department officials said.

Farmers Abus Samad and Taijul Islam said they have to spend Tk 2,000 to 1,500 every day for braining cattle to the haat and this is how the prices are going up.

However, local farmers are happy as the border forces have kept the Indian cattle at bay.

Mamun, a wholesale cattle trader in Lalmonirhat, said, “I’ve come here with a hope to buy cattle but I couldn’t buy one due to the higher prices.”

Dr Mohamamd Abdul Hue Sarkar, district livestock officer, said, “This time cattle are not being imported from India. Over 1.5 lakh animals are there ready in the district for Eid. We hope the farmers will get fair prices this year.”

He said the farmers of the district did not use any steroid and harmful chemicals for fattening cattle.