[Dhaka Tribune] A cow plummeted 70ft from a terrace and crushed a man in Kolkata, injuring the unfortunate man but losing his own bovine life in the process.Forty three-year-old Abdul Mannan from Kolkata, West Bengal started Sunday morning like every other day. He walked to the local market at Masjid Bari Lane in Tiljala to buy fresh vegetables and other essentials for his family.
At around 8am, as he was checking out cucumbers at a roadside shop, however, his day took a turn for the worse. From the skies above, something heavy fell on him, causing him to collapse on the road.
Injured and fast losing consciousness, Mannan still managed to catch a glimpse of what hit him: an 85kg calf.
Locals and bystanders quickly whisked him off to a private nursing home, from where he was later shifted to a public hospital.
The cow, a six-month-old, which had dropped some 70ft, unfortunately was struck down in his prime. Though Mannan survived, he now has a fracture on his left leg, cracks in a rib and wounds on the back of his head, as well as multiple injuries all over his body that required as many as 18 stitches.
Much as it looked like it was raining cows, the reality was simple enough to explain. For the past week, the calf had been kept captive on the terrace of a nearby four-storey building by one of the building’s tenants.
| That's one way to ensure a steady supply of dried dung for the cook stove. |