Colony turns into a pigsty

Colony turns into a pigsty

Families Rear, Slaughter Pigs In Compounds; Residents Fear Epidemics

Aarthi R & Jayashree Nandi | TNN


Bangalore: Pigs run helter-skelter around houses and vehicles, the stench of slaughtered pigs fills the air and wails of country pigs add to the chaos — this is not a scene near a pig sty or abattoir, it is the residential area of Jogi Handi Colony near Chikka Adugodi.
The colony has an old age home, a creche and around 400 apartments close by. People here have been living with these allegedly illegal pig slaughterhouses for more than a decade now. But their patience is wearing thin, and they have lost hope in BBMP’s measures. However, their last attempt of a joint representation to the BBMP commissioner on January 3 seems to have given them a ray of hope.
The pig slaughterhouses in this colony, adjacent to St John’s cross road, defy the KMC guidelines of slaughterhouses. “Residents here are not against the people in this colony, nor their livelihood; rather, it’s the fear of civic problems due to the slaughter,’’ is what many of them have to say. The way out is shifting the rearing, storage and slaughtering to the outskirts or to relocate them to the only legal pig slaughterhouse in Fraser Town, they feel.
“It’s not pleasant to hear pigs wailing and living amid the stench here. We fear an epidemic like viral encephalitis,’’ said residents of Prestige St John’s Wood Apartments’ Association. The burning of gunny bags with leftover body parts has led to parts of power lines being burnt. Bescom engineers acknowledge that this was leading to frequent disruption of power in the area.
Leftover body parts clog the underground drainage lines and are scattered around near crossroads.
The kites and crows scavenging on these leftovers sometimes snap power lines and transformers.
According to BBMP sources, some of the families have been into the business for more than three generations. Despite the numerous notices, the occupants have been resistant as this is their only source of livelihood. The BBMP is making arrangements to shift the slaughterhouses and has also written to the Karnataka Meat and Poultry Marketing Corporation (formerly called BAFCO) about this. The modern abattoir at Igaluru will have a separate section for pig slaughter. “However, we are also looking into alternate arrangements. We should be able to work a way out of this, very soon,’’ a BBMP health official told TOI.
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MIDNIGHT SLAUGHTER
Around 40 houses in the colony; 20-25 of them rear pigs for slaughter
Mostly country pigs are brought from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu
Slaughterhouses are small sheds within the residence compound
Butchery starts at midnight and continues till 3-4 am
The waste is packed into gunny bags and burnt on the roadside before dawn
Meat is loaded into trucks by 6-8 am
Sold for Rs 100-120 per kg