At least four attacks on cattle-pounds have been reported since January at Kapodara, Nana Varachha, Mota Bahucharji and Kaskiwad. Bajrang Dal's Surat chief Ashwin Modi, while denying involvement in these attacks, warns, ``If the impounded cattle are not provided adequate food and space, we will strike.''

The Surat Municipal Corporation, however, has done little more than post an armed guard at every pound. Says a Surat Municipal Corporation official on condition of anonymity, ``We can't do much as the attacks take place only late in the night. Two guards can hardly be expected to take on a 100-strong mob.''

The police, too, have not made even a single arrest till date over the storming of the cattle pounds, as the guards could not identify the culprits in their complaints. The Kapodara police says that a couple of days after the Nana Varachha pound was attacked, the police paraded a number of Bharwads before Kishan Jiledar Singh, the armed guard, but he failed to identify any of them.

Asked about reports of a Bajrang Dal hand in freeing impounded cattle, investigating police officials say since no complaint specifically mentioned the organisation, they were not probing their involvement.

The SMC has 11 cattle pounds in various parts of the city. They are in the charge of the civic body's market department, which impounds cattle -- mostly cows, but also goats, camels and buffaloes -- maintains them, frees them against payment of fines (Rs 780 per cattlehead for the first day and Rs 280 for each subsequent day) and sends unclaimed cattle to a voluntary organisation at Ghod Dod Road.

It is in the Ved Road-Katargam-Varachha-Kapodara areas that the SMC faces the maximum opposition over impounding cattle. Initially, these areas were outside the city limits, but though the city has gradually engulfed them, the Bharwads and Rabaris, who are concentrated here, continue to go about the traditional occupation as they did before.