Motoring
DELHI LAUNCHES CATTLE CRACKDOWN There are an estimated 40,000 cows wandering the streets of Delhi. Some are wild but many are simply allowed to roam free so that their owners do not have to pay for feed. Because Hindus consider the cow to be a sacred animal — an individual can be jailed for injuring or killing one — the roving bovines have traditionally gone unchallenged. However, that view is slowly changing. Recent opposition from Delhi’s 13m inhabitants, keen to promote the city as a modern metropolis, has prompted a crackdown on cows by the city’s officials. They have ruled that the animals are a menace to public order and health and are responsible for clogging up the city’s roads. “Cows are a serious problem. They wander all over the roads, causing traffic jams, and are responsible for some serious accidents,” says Dr SK Yadav, a vet with the city council. The city has now been divided into 12 zones, each one patrolled by teams with trucks, ropes and cattle prods. The cows are captured and taken to sanctuaries outside the city. However, the problem of what to do with them remains. They cannot be put down and no state in India wants to take the captured animals off Delhi’s hands. For now, the cows are being held in detention while their future is determined. MIRROR, SIGNAL, PRAY Maxwell Pereira, the police chief who oversees the chaotic flow of 15m vehicles on the roads of India’s capital city, has one of the toughest jobs in motoring, writes James Luckhurst. “We deal with everything from camels, elephants, bullock carts and buffalo buggies to horse-driven carriages and all kinds of mechanised transport,” he says. “It can be a nightmare. So many drivers display an utter lack of knowledge where right of way is concerned. This leads to wrong overtaking, a wanton disregard of traffic signals and indiscriminate hooting. “We must also deal with car drivers performing rash acts of zigzagging and lane-changing. But the Indian driver prides himself on his keen reflexes to see him clear of all potential trouble. Even so, between 12,000 and 15,000 traffic prosecutions are launched every day.” A longer version of this article appears on the relaunched Channel 4 motoring website www.channel4.com/4car
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