The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) crackdown on milk adulteration has triggered a surge in cattle theft across rural Maharashtra which according to farmers is a growing threat to the dairy business.Police arrested a dairy farm worker on Tuesday in connection with a cattle theft case. (HT PHOTO)In the latest case reported from Purandar taluka in Pune district, thieves allegedly stole nine buffaloes and nine cows worth ₹17.1 lakh from a dairy farm in Garade village. As per the Saswad police, dairy farmer Santosh Babasaheb Katke, 32, a resident of Bhivari village in Purandar taluka, lodged a complaint stating that the theft took place between 10 pm on July 13 and 5 am on July 14 at his cattle shed in Garade-Dhone Vasti.Katke told the police that he returned home Monday night after completing some routine work at the cattle shed. The next morning while his brother and he had gone for darshan, a worker informed them over the phone that several animals were missing. Hurrying back to the cattle shed, they found that seven Murrah and two Jafarabadi buffaloes, each valued at around ₹1.10 lakh; along with nine Holstein Friesian (HF)-Jersey crossbred cows worth about ₹80,000 each had been stolen. They suffered a loss of around ₹17.10 lakh.Based on the complaint, the Saswad police registered a case under section 303(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against unidentified persons. During the investigation, the police found that a worker employed at the dairy farm had gone missing. On Tuesday, they arrested Mahadev Yadav, 22, a native of Uttar Pradesh, in connection with the theft.Santosh Gholve, senior police inspector at Saswad police station, said, “After the recent FDA action, there has been a sharp rise in the prices of milch animals. The accused was working at the cattle shed and closely observed the dairy business. He decided to steal the animals and sell them at a much higher price because of the huge demand in the market.”Gholve added that the police are also investigating whether Yadav was involved in similar such thefts reported in the area.The investigation further revealed that Yadav’s father worked at another dairy farm. The police suspect that the accused had planned to handover some of the stolen animals to his father to start their own dairy business. Yadav had joined Katke’s farm five months ago and had gradually gained the owner’s trust.Katke, who runs J K Milk Dairy in Bhivari, told Hindustan Times, “There is huge demand for pure milk after the recent FDA raids across the state. To meet the increased demand, we recently purchased 75 cows and buffaloes from the Rajasthan-Gujarat border at inflated prices ranging from ₹1.75 lakh to ₹2 lakh per animal”.Katke suspects that the accused might have sedated the other workers and even the watchdogs before executing the theft.J K Milk Dairy has more than 200 milch animals and produces around 2,000 to 3,000 litres of milk daily. The milk is sold both loose and in packets and also supplied for further processing.Katke’s is not an isolated case.In the first week of July, the Dhule local crime branch arrested a man named Suresh Ramesh Gavit, 32, a resident of Navapur in Nandurbar district, and recovered nine buffaloes and two goats, and solved three livestock theft cases registered at Sakri (two cases) and Pimpalner police stations.Dyaneshwar Ware, senior police inspector, local crime branch, Dhule, said, “The accused is a history-sheeter involved in motorcycle and other theft cases. However, with the recent surge in cattle prices, he turned to stealing livestock because the animals can be sold easily and there is huge demand”.The surge in cattle theft cases coincides with a sharp increase in cattle prices across Maharashtra. Dairy farmers and livestock traders said that the market value of high-yielding cows and buffaloes has risen significantly over the past few months after the FDA intensified action against milk adulteration.Officials associated with the dairy sector said stricter enforcement against synthetic and adulterated milk has increased demand for genuine milk production, prompting dairy operators to buy more productive animals. With the rise in demand, the price of quality cattle too has increased from around ₹1 lakh to ₹1.75-2 lakh in several livestock markets, depending on breed, milk yield and stage of lactation.According to Katke, many such cases of cattle theft go unreported.“I approached the police because 18 of my animals were stolen. But in many cases, farmers do not report the theft of one or two animals. They not only lose valuable livestock but also their source of income, and arranging money to buy replacement animals has become extremely difficult in the current market,” he said.Rising prices have made dairy cattle attractive targets for organised theft gangs, he said.Abhijit Patole, another dairy farmer, said, “Cattle theft requires considerable planning, as transporting multiple cows and buffaloes involves vehicles, manpower and prior reconnaissance of farms”.Farmers have urged the police to step up night patrolling in rural areas, examine CCTV footage from highways and village roads, and tighten surveillance at livestock markets to prevent the sale of stolen animals.Police officials said that they are examining CCTV footage, tracking local intelligence and following other leads to identify all those involved and recover the stolen livestock.