cattle meance ~ rampaging cow and the new vigilante

Cattle menace ~ problems posed by raging cattle has risen to demonic proportions – sometimes, stray cattle run after people carrying bags, some have fallen in fear, some have been directly hurt too .. .. yet, cattle freely roam on the streets untethered.  Miles away, in Germany, a rampaging cow prompted Police to deploy a helicopter with thermal imaging abilities after the animal ripped through a Bavarian town. The cow attacked its owner, smashed a greenhouse and damaged a patrol car.

Reports suggest that a  runaway cow triggered an hour long police chase in the Bavarian town of Sand am Main, with authorities deploying several police cars and a helicopter equipped with a thermal camera. Local volunteer firefighters were also asked to assist in boxing the animal in. The 600-kilogram (1,324-pound) bovine was tracked down four hours after its owner noticed it had fled his nearby farm on Saturday evening.  "It may sound funny initially, but it was a very dangerous deployment," police commander Andreas Winkler was quoted as saying by the local Licha-Media.de news outlet.  Initially, the owner said two cows had escaped from his enclosure, but he soon managed to catch one of them. With help from authorities, the other one was located near a supermarket but then took off again toward the center of the town. The animal trampled through a greenhouse and a camping ground, prompting police to warn residents to move out of the way. The spooked animal also destroyed a scooter and damaged a police car.

The farmer, who tried to help calm the animal down, was also attacked and knocked down by the cow, but sustained no serious injury.  Eventually, a police helicopter discovered the animal in a dead-end alleyway. Police and the volunteer fire department used their vehicles to cut off its retreat and a veterinarian used a blowpipe to shoot the animal with a tranquillizer dart. According to the dpa news agency, the owner managed to transport it back to the farm early on Sunday.

In another interesting news, a geneticist at Pennsylvania State University explains that all of America's cows  have ended up so similar to each other.  Doing computer analysis of the company select Sires, that   sells semen from bulls for the purpose of artificially inseminating dairy cows, the analyst  chooses the lineup of Holstein bulls. This is the breed that dominates the dairy business. They're the black-and-white animals that give a lot of milk.  Dairy farmers can go to this online catalogue  and pick a bull, and the company will ship doses of semen to impregnate their cows.  According to him there perhaps are   well over a quarter-million daughters, to one famous bull.  The companies rank their bulls based on how much milk their daughters have produced. A  bull named Frazzled, has produced daughters capable of yielding 2,150 pounds more milk than daughters of the average bull.

That no ordinary bull story – but back home, there suddenly has splurged another cow vigilante .. .. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday attacked the Government over the alleged decline in the population of indigenous cattle, saying the government's love for cow is only on paper.

The former finance minister also hit out at the government over what he said was an "acute" job crisis. In a tweet posted by his family on his behalf, Chidambaram, who is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, put out two economic indicators for people to draw their own conclusions. "Over 50 percent of those asked said that the employment situation is presently worse. Over 30 percent said it will worsen. Meaning, the job crisis is acute," he said, posting the first economic indicator.

"Population of indigenous cattle declined by 6 percent between 2012 and 2019. Meaning, the government's love for the cow is only on paper. It does not translate into increased productivity or fertility," he added. Chidambaram had on Wednesday said he would tweet two economic indicators every day for people to draw their own conclusions.

Perhaps immediate result of his concern for cow – today, former Union Minister P Chidambaram was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the INX Media corruption case, but he will not be released as he remains in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate. Mr Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI on August 21, had been in judicial custody in Delhi's Tihar jail until last week, when he was handed over to the Enforcement Directorate.  The 74-year-old Congress leader has been granted bail in the CBI case but will remain in the Enforcement Directorate's custody till October 24.

The three-judge bench made it clear that Chidambaram will not leave the country without prior permission of the court and make himself available for interrogation as and when called by the probe agency. Mr Chidambaram was in Tihar, Asia's largest prison facility, for more than a month. On October 15, the court allowed the probe agency to question Mr Chidambaram in its custody and allowed home-cooked food, a separate cell, a western toilet, spectacles and medicines for the veteran leader.  The probe agency opposed his request for air-conditioning. He is allowed to meet family members and relatives for half-an-hour every day.

The INX Media case involves allegations that Mr Chidambaram, as Finance Minister of the country, facilitated foreign funding for the company INX Media - co-founded by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea -- in 2007 and his son Karti received kickbacks for it. Mr Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and 13 others including senior bureaucrats and private companies have been accused in a CBI chargesheet of causing losses to the government.  Peter Mukherjea is also an accused but Indrani Mukerjea, who has turned approver against Mr Chidambaram, does not face charges. Both Peter and Indrani Mukerjea are currently in jail in connection with the murder of Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

22^nd Oct 2o19.