People sadly see buffaloes frozen to death, butchered and sold along the highway

On the afternoon of February 1, after two days of snow and frost in many places such as O Qui Ho Pass, Fansipan Peak, Sa Pa Town, Simacai... the temperature here is still very low, ranging from 0-5 degrees Celsius. Although the snow has stopped falling in Sa Pa Town and many other places, the frost is still white, the cold air makes people's lives difficult, causing damage to livestock and crops.

With his father butchering a buffalo in front of the house, heLy Phuong Chieu (born in 1993, residing in Trung Chai commune) said: The snowfall in the past few days has caused his family's herd of more than 10 buffaloes to be cold on the mountain. Two of them froze and died in the forest.Not only his family but many other households in the village that released buffaloes on the mountain also had buffaloes die due to the cold.

“When it snowed heavily in Sa Pa, many people and I went up the mountain to herd buffaloes to avoid the cold and discovered that some buffaloes had frozen legs and couldn’t walk, and some smaller ones died in the middle of the forest,” said Mr. Chieu.

The three Ly Lao Lo brothers are butchering buffalo meat for sale. Photo: Nguyen Hoan

More than 1km from Mr. Chieu's house in the direction from Sa Pa to Lao Cai City, the three brothers Ly Lao Lo were also butchering a recently dead young buffalo. Two days of snowfall in Trung Chai commune caused an old buffalo and two young buffaloes of Mr. Lo's family to die from cold and frostbite.

“Knowing that the snow would affect the buffalo herd, on the afternoon of January 31, my two younger siblings and I went up the mountain to look for it and found a large buffalo dead on the mountain. The family had no choice but to slaughter the buffalo in the middle of the forest and bring it back to sell along the national highway. A day later, before the buffalo meat was sold, two calves died of frostbite,” Mr. Lo shared.

The Mong man said that because he sells meat on the side of the highway, there are very few buyers.

According to a reporter's report on the afternoon of February 1, many people in Trung Chai commune herded their buffaloes that were grazing freely on the mountains back to avoid the cold, severe cold, and snow.

On the way to herd the buffalo back to the shed, Ms. Cha Sa May (38 years old) said: In the cold season every year, many of her family's buffaloes died because of the cold and snow. So this year, her family built a shed with tarpaulin to protect the buffaloes from the rain and wind. Before dark, the family carefully herds the buffaloes back to the barn and at noon the next day, when the weather is clear and dry, they let the buffaloes out to graze.

People make fire to warm buffalo.

Chief of Office of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Lao Cai Province - Mr. Nguyen Chinh Cuong said: Snow and ice appeared in Sa Pa in the past 2 days, causing 26 buffaloes and 3 cows in Sa Pa to die from the cold, with an estimated loss of nearly 500 million VND. The damage to crops, industrial plants, and other agricultural products has not been determined.

“The cold rain and snow are expected to last for many days, so the locality has implemented a plan to prevent damage to livestock, poultry, and agricultural products for people and closely monitor weather developments to have timely plans when necessary,” said Mr. Cuong.

Mr. Cuong also said that since the beginning of the cold season (November 19, 2017 to now), the whole province has lost 453 cattle with an estimated total value of more than 6.9 billion VND. Of which, more than 50% of the damage occurred in Sa Pa district, the rest occurred in Simacai, Lao Cai city and Van Ban.