Chennai Citizen Connect: No escape for Marina from strays' wrath
Discarded food from eateries on the service road attracts strays. Leisure time becomes frantic as visitors scramble to avoid aggressive cattle
CHENNAI: Stray menace in the city is not limited to any particular locality. Heavily-guarded and bustling Marina Beach is no exception to this issue. Where citizens and tourists expect to wind down or begin their day, they are seen anxiously scattering here and there as stray dogs and cattle leisurely roam along both the service road and Kamarajar Salai along the beach.
The cattle are also reportedly aggressive towards visitors, frightening them.
R Ramesh, an activist, shared his experience at the Beach with DT Next, "When I visited the beach on Thursday evening, cattle were roaming around the area. A herd emerged from the street adjacent to the War Memorial and waded towards the beach. They mostly come here to eat food discarded from the eateries."
He rued that senior citizens and children are most affected when cattle chase them. "Each year, the Greater Chennai Corporation claims that crores of money are spent on the cattle and dog menace, but it is not evident anywhere.
The visitors, especially the senior citizens and children, visit during the evening hours, and it is not easy for them to run when the cattle come," Ramesh added.
Recently, the GCC announced additional shelters at Tondiarpet, Anna Nagar and Madhavaram at an estimated cost of Rs 12 crore to address the stray cattle issue. But the extent to which the issue could be solved is questionable, says the activists. Officials attached to the Chennai corporation were unavailable when DT Next contacted.
