Holding her two-month-old daughter close to her chest, Manori Bibi sits quietly in her mud house. Her face is expressionless, even as her child’s first social smile flashes across her face. Beneath a hole-strewn thatched roof, torn not by storm but by poverty, life seems harder for Manori than it was in Astia village of Balasore district in northern Odisha.
Her husband, Seikh Mukander Mohammed, a 35-year-old bricklayer whose meager daily wages kept the household afloat, died on January 14. His life was allegedly taken after he was lynched by gau rakshaks (cow protectors), who operate openly in vigilante groups mostly in Bharatiya Janata Party states.
Odisha has seen an average of about 20 cases of cow-related obstruction and violence per month since mid-2025, according to the Odisha Police Crime Branch. Groups operating in the name of preventing alleged cattle smuggling usually obstruct vehicles carrying cattle. Then they call the police. After Mukander’s death, the police launched multi-district raids in Keonjhar, the home district of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, to bust organized cow smuggling.
Rizwan, a village resident and photographer with an Odia daily, says Mukander’s family now faces a double battle: “They will face social stigma and deepening financial hardship.”
In the early hours
Mukander was born and brought up in the village of Astia, 12 kilometers from Balasore city and about 15 km from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, India’s premier missile testing centre. The streets of Astia tell a different story from many rural settlements: Hindu and Muslim households sit side by side, often within 50 meters of each other. Mukander had no agricultural land to inherit, so he took up daily wage labour. Over time, he acquired bricklaying skills and earned about ₹100 a day more than an unskilled labourer. The improvement did little to ease the family’s uncertainty.
“My brother had a job on an average for barely 18 days a month for ₹500 a day. The rest of the days he did odd jobs to survive,” says his younger brother Seikh Jitender Mohammed. Their father is bedridden. January 14, 2026 was Makar Sankranti, a major Hindu harvest festival. It would mean an almost complete halt to construction work in the area. Without a daily wage, Mukander needed a substitute job.
His mother, Manwari Bibi, recalls that he received a call in the early hours of the day. “He was asked to accompany the fish van to its destination and was promised ₹1,000. He gladly accepted,” he says. Mukander left home between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. Manori says the family borrowed money from two self-help groups and the debt rose to ₹90,000. “Work rarely comes. When it does, you can’t say no,” he says.
Hours later, the family received frantic calls from villagers that Mukander had met with an accident, he says. By the time they reached Jaydev Kasaba, where the van had veered off the road, Mukander had already been taken to hospital by the police. He died later that afternoon.
Initially, the police solved the case by failing to smuggle cattle. “An injured cow was found near the vehicle, so we invoked the provisions of Odisha Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960; Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; and relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,” says Debajyoti Dash, Additional Superintendent of Police, Balasoregent.
As the day progressed, videos began to circulate of a person, allegedly Mukander, being mercilessly beaten by a group of men. While the authenticity of the footage is being verified by the police, the visuals showed the person being forced to chant slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and “Go mata, mo maa” (Cow is my mother).
Mukander’s brother Jitender lodged a complaint, following which the police registered a fresh case under Section 103(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which dealt with mob lynching. “We have arrested six people in connection with the incident. The investigation is on and no one will be spared,” says Balasore Superintendent of Police Pratyush Diwaker. A resident living near Jaydev Kasaba, the site of the incident, about 10 km from Mukander’s home, says nearly 10 men held up the van in the early hours of the morning.
On the streets
Odisha Police crime branch records show a recurring pattern: cattle laden vans are chased and searched by vigilante groups. In November 2025 alone, teams in different parts of the state tracked down at least 20 cattle vehicles. In several cases, the groups were linked to Hindu organizations, police said.
Security forces were deployed at the entrance of Astia village where a Muslim man died in a lynching in north Odisha’s Balasore district. | Photo credit: Biswaranjan Rout
On 5 November 2025, police said they seized four bulls and arrested a man from Barbil in Keonjhar district, acting on information provided by members of the Hindu Ekta Manch, a group for Hindu rashtra (nation). Four days later, on November 9, a Bajrang Dal member filmed the alleged slaughter of a cow in Jagatsinghpur district, following which a case was registered at the Balikuda police station.
On November 14, Bajrang Dal members intercepted another cattle van in Bhadrak and rescued eight animals, police say. On November 18, the gau rakshaks alerted the Khordha police about a truck allegedly carrying 12 buffaloes. Once again, on November 21, members of the Bajrang Dal intercepted a cattle vehicle in the Sukinda area of Jajpur district, leading to the seizure of 12 cattle.
In September 2025, 26 cattle transport vehicles were intercepted in Odisha. In at least 8 of these cases, including 6 involving members of the Bajrang Dal and one each involving the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and gau rakshakas, the groups reached the spot before alerting the police.
Police records show that in August 2025, 30 cases related to cattle transport were registered. On August 4, a member of the BJP zilla ward alerted the authorities about the hoarding of 21 cows in the Sinapali area of Nuapada district. According to police documents, at least 15 people associated with the Sangh Parivar, including the VHP, Bajrang Dal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, first clashed with the person associated with the cattle before the police intervened and formally registered the case.
While police reports commonly acknowledge the role of these groups in detaining cattle vehicles, they rarely document whether violence preceded their arrival at the scene. Some of those caught were Hindus.
As many as 80 incidents of Hindu-Muslim tension were recorded in 2021, of which 35 were triggered by cow-related issues, including alleged human trafficking and slaughter. Communal incidents stood at 58 in 2022 and spiked to 85 in 2023, with cow-related issues emerging as a flashpoint in 30 and 60 cases. By July 2024, as many as 65 Hindu-Muslim incidents had already been reported, of which 49 were related to cow disputes.
As Mukander’s death sparked outrage, the gau rakshaks denied any role in the violence that led to his killing. “We have grown into an organized group of volunteers who only inform the police about cow transport and slaughter. We have never been involved in violence,” says Jitendra Swain, secretary of the Maa Bharati Go Seva Kendra in Balasore, which claims to shelter nearly 3,000 stray cattle.
According to Swain, there are around 30 gau rakshaks and a much larger number of gau sevaks (servants) operating in the district. “We not only hand over those involved in cow-trafficking to the police but also follow the cases to their logical conclusion. We ensure that the police do not dilute the cases at any stage of investigation and even take cases to court so that the culprits do not go unpunished,” he says. Swain says public support is growing. “The winds of change have started to blow. More people are coming forward to fund cow rescue efforts in Odisha,” he says.
jitendra swain, secretary of the maa bharati go seva kendra in balasore, which shelters nearly 3000 sray cattle. | Photo credit: Biswaranjan Rout
Acting extra-constitutionally
Human rights activists express serious concern about the violence that often precedes police action in cases of alleged cattle trafficking. “We have a more than 60-year-old law in the form of the Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960. Where does it mention the role of cow vigilantes? Who gave them the power to attack people even if they are on the wrong side of the law?” says Biswapriya Kanungo, a human rights lawyer.
Kanungo says the gau rakshaks exercise powers “like a private army”. “If they are such nationalists, how many trucks loaded with ganja have they seized? What have they done to stop the theft of minerals from the state?” he says. By seeking help from the gau rakshaks to curb cattle movement while turning a blind eye to their highhandedness, Kanungo says, the police appear to have effectively left these forces on the streets of Odisha.
The Balasore district police cannot recall gau rakshaks ever being educated about their role as informers rather than street-level enforcers. “During Ama police meetings, we discuss the duties and responsibilities of citizens. People are made aware of the consequences of taking the law into their own hands,” says Balasore SP Diwaker.
Bowing to the cow
The killings on the streets of Balasore did not provoke much political response. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Bhakta Charan Das addressed a press conference to condemn Mukander’s killing, while the Biju Janata Dal sent a state-level delegation to Astia village five days later to meet the bereaved family. A team from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) also visited the family. Beyond these gestures, however, there was little evidence of sustained political agitation or serious efforts to hold the administration accountable.
In the third week of January, public attention shifted. The Keonjhar police launched one of the biggest crackdowns on alleged cattle smugglers in recent memory, conducting raids in Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts. Police seized ₹1.4 million in cash, 1 kilogram of gold and 3 kg of silver. They arrested 9 people connected to the cattle trade. The scale of the operation dominated the headlines, while Mukander’s death was sidelined.
To step up police action, Animal Husbandry Minister Gokula Nanda Mallik told PTI that the government is taking firm action against cattle smuggling. “Properties worth more than ₹50 crore belonging to cattle traders have been seized. The chief minister has directed officials to keep a close watch on cattle smuggling,” he said.
On the alleged involvement of gau rakshaks in violence, Mallik said cow protection is linked to “religious sentiment and asmita” (pride), adding that while social activists often help the police, “they should not take the law into their own hands”. Addressing the Fisheries and Livestock Conclave, Chief Minister Majhi warned cattle smugglers that strict action would be taken against them. Revenue and Disaster Minister Suresh Pujari has announced that cow shelters will be set up across the state. For this, the government would provide the land.
edited by Sunalini Mathew
