• Incident shocks early morning walkers; demand banning livestock inside Lake

Mysuru: The image of cows as placid and gentle creatures is a passé as there are incidents that demonstrate even cows can be ferocious. In some cases, the cows actually attack humans — ramming them, knocking them down, goring them, trampling them and kicking them in the head — resulting in grievous injuries.

One such incident was reported at Kukkarahalli Lake early this morning at 8 where two women were attacked by a cow when they were on their regular morning walk. The cow that was grazing on the Lake side suddenly ran into the walking path and hit one of the women. It gored her and she fell onto the ground.

Even before the other woman realised what happened to her fellow walker, the cow attacked even her. Not stopping after goring the women, the cow rolled the women on the ground even as they were screaming for help. The cow pushed the women with its head and they were about to fall into the water. Fortunately, some of the other walkers rushed for help and chased away the cow.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Prof. Basavaraju, one of the walkers, said grazing cows are ubiquitous sight at Kukkarahalli Lake. “This is a walkers’ paradise and the presence of cows are dangerous. These women were attacked without being provoked,” he said. Seeing the attack, other women walkers fled the spot for safety. The injured women were rushed to a hospital for treatment.

Older men and women with arthritis and hearing aids have the highest risk of being injured by livestock as they don’t hear the animals charging and can’t move fast enough to get out of the way. Some walkers alleged that the security personnel manning the Kukkarahalli Lake take money from livestock owners and let the animals to freely graze inside.

“The University of Mysore that is the custodian of Kukkarahalli Lake and the Forest Department must prevent the practice of letting in cows to Kukkarahalli Lake. The place must be reserved for walkers,” another regular walker added.

Soon after the incident, the security personnel reported the incident to the University authorities. The security men, however, denied that they take money from people to leave their livestock inside the Lake.

A security man said that today’s incident occurred when cows from Paduvarahalli entered the Lake through the University gate or the Railway track where there is no fencing.