Helpless buyers forced to pay hefty prices, claim crisis was created
Zafrul Hasan Babul, a resident of Mirpur-12, failed for the first time to buy any sacrificial animal due to severe supply shortage in all the 15 cattle markets of the city since Sunday morning, the last day before Eid-ul-Azha.
Babul, who had been trying to buy a cow since Saturday night, said he even went to the Gabtoli cattle market after saying his Eid prayers but found the situation there worse.
There were only around 100 cows in Gabtoli at 11:00am on Eid day when around 20,000 buyers were around, he said. “I tried to buy a cow till 3:00am on Monday and came to the market again at 11:00am, but failed.”
The supply of cattle began to fall since Sunday morning, a situation which had never happened before, said George, a resident of Pallabi. “Like me, a huge number of people in the capital failed to offer the sacrifice due to the crisis.”
With the crisis mounting, exorbitant prices were charged for the animals that were available.
Sohel Hasib, director of the Gabtoli cattle market, however, blames the media for spreading the news that there was ample supply of cattle in Dhaka, just three days before the Eid.
“Based on reports on several television channels on November 4, many of the suppliers refrained from sending more cattle to Dhaka. But the following day, most of the animals were sold out.”
He said during Eid, suppliers usually send cattle to Dhaka twice before Eid, considering the demand.
A trader at Gandaria’s Dhupkhola Math, Jamir Mandal, said the number of cattle usually raised across the country for Eid-ul-Azha was less this year than last year due to the recent outbreak of anthrax.
Besides, buyers alleged that a syndicate of brokers had been very active at the Gabtoli market. On Sunday, they stopped around 25 trucks out of some 100 at Aminbazar before those could reach Gabtoli to sell the cows at high prices.
To make a quick profit out of the crisis, people from Gazipur, Savar, Dhamrai, Singair, Manikganj and Narsingdi brought their cows and calves, raised as pets, to Dhaka. Many of those were not eligible, in the religious sense, for Qurbani.
“The size of the calf I purchased at Tk 30,000 was small enough to be brought home easily on a CNG-run auto rickshaw,” said Arif Hossain, who succeeded in purchasing the calf on Eid day.
Syed Noman of Pallabi said, “I spent Tk 97,000 to buy a cow, which would have cost me around Tk 50,000 on Saturday.”
Seeing the cow and hearing of its price on Eid day, Noman said his father had been so shocked that he asked that he rather than the animal be slaughtered in sacrifice instead.
As demand for goats went high because of the scarcity of cows in the markets, traders took their chance and doubled prices.
A goat worth around Tk 10,000 was charged Tk 20,000 due to the sudden rise in demand, said Faruk Hossain of Gandaria.
However, supply of Indian cattle in Dhaka was much higher than in the previous year, say traders.
-With The Daily Star input
