LAHORE: The district administration has launched a major operation against cattle pens established illegally in residential areas of Lahore, demolishing 15 unauthorised pens and sheds during an action on Chandrai Road led by the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Enforcement).
Hundreds of animals were shifted out of the residential neighbourhood during the operation.
According to the district administration, the illegal cattle pens were not being relocated voluntarily despite multiple warnings and a stream of complaints received from residents — the trigger for the enforcement drive.
ADC Enforcement Kashif Jaleel said the pens had not been moved on their own despite repeated notices, after which the administration decided to act.
The administration said illegal cattle pens operating inside residential areas had become a major cause of sanitation and sewerage problems, with residents facing difficulties because of animal waste.
That is the core civic argument behind the drive. Livestock kept inside dense residential blocks generates a continuous stream of solid and liquid waste that municipal systems in older Lahore neighbourhoods were never designed to absorb. Slurry discharged into street drains is a well-documented cause of sewer blockage, standing water and the odour and fly nuisance that dominates resident complaints. In monsoon months, blocked lines translate directly into localised urban flooding.
There is also a public health dimension. Close, unregulated contact between livestock and dense human settlement is associated with the transmission of zoonotic disease, and stagnant waste provides breeding conditions for vectors — a concern that has grown sharper in Punjab since dengue control became a permanent municipal function rather than a seasonal campaign.
The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), the Municipal Corporation Lahore, Suthra Punjab and other relevant departments also took part in the operation against the illegal cattle pens.
That composition is significant. Enforcement against entrenched informal land use rarely succeeds when run by a single agency, because demolition, waste removal, animal relocation and follow-up monitoring fall under separate mandates. Suthra Punjab, the provincial sanitation programme, has been folded into district enforcement drives precisely to close the gap between clearing a site and keeping it clear.
The Additional Deputy Commissioner (Enforcement) said keeping cattle illegally in urban areas would not be permitted, and that action against violators would continue without discrimination.
The district administration has made clear that in the next phase of the operation, illegal cattle pens in other areas of the city will also be removed.
Enforcement of this kind has historically faced a durability problem: pens dismantled in one drive can reappear once official attention moves on, and affected owners often argue that no serviced alternative site has been made available to them within reach of their customers. Whether the announced next phase is accompanied by a relocation framework will determine how much of Sunday’s gain holds.
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