CHENNAI: Officials of the Blue Cross of India (BCI) intercepted a lorry near Chenglepet toll plaza on Tuesday evening and rescued 24 buffaloes, including a three-month-old calf, and two bulls. Officials claimed the lorry was transporting the cattle from Andhra Pradesh to Kerala via Tamil Nadu for slaughter. BCI officials lodged a complaint with the Chenglepet Taluk police, who arrived at the spot and began investigations, on Tuesday night.Dawn Williams, General Manager, BCI, Chennai, said he received a phone call about the lorry from the Vice-Chairman, Animal Welfare Board of India, on Tuesday evening. “I reached the spot from Kanchipuram but by that time the lorry driver had driven away with the vehicle. I then found the lorry and followed in my vehicle,” he says.Blue Cross officials claimed there were five people including the driver in the lorry and one them opened the cargo-hold latch and began unloading the cattle as soon as the vehicle was intercepted near a railway track. “We managed to catch 24 buffaloes and two bulls,” the GM said.Officials further claimed that Jain community people brought 20 water cans to be given to the cattle besides arranging for vehicles to transport them safely to the Blue Cross premises. “They did not carry the necessary certificate from a veterinary doctor that the cattle were fit for travel nor the cattle had the required 2x2 square metre space. The driver, who claimed he was the owner of the vehicle, kept lying to us. The cattle were in the vehicle for two days,” said Williams.On February 2, the Blue Cross rescued 34 bulls on the Tambaram by-pass road.
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