Smuggling of cattle from India to Bangladesh has become a 'major menace' for Border Security Force personnel, resulting in the arrest of over 820 smugglers so far this year. Special drives to check the illegal trade have also been undertaken.

The BSF has arrested 822 smugglers along the Indo-Bangla border till April this year, compared to 1,839 in 2005, 1,639 in 2004 and 1,971 the year earlier, the goverment informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs S Regupathy said, "Special drives are undertaken on the border to check the illegal smuggling of cattle. Unfenced gaps in the border fence are being plugged with improvised fencing and it is being extended to as many areas as possible." 

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Other steps included establishment of new border out posts and a pilot project of flood lighting of 277 km of Indo-Bangla border in West Bengal, he said.

In a separate answer, he said eight incidents of firing by Bangladesh Rifles, including on the intervening night of March 21-22, have been reported this year, killing three civilians and injuring eight. He said the firing incident between BSF and BDR personnel on the intervening night of March 21-22 over construction of embankments on River Kartoya by Bangladeshi workers has been taken up with Dhaka through diplomatic channels.

BSF also regularly lodges protest notes with BDR after such incidents and raises during bilateral Border Coordination Conferences between the two border guards.

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