Although over 7,000 students go to the three schools and the St Theresa's Girls Higher Secondary School, the authorities of the Cantonment have turned a blind eye to their problems, though many of them contract severe fevers and infections regularly. These children come from areas as far as Valasaravakkam, Porur and from neighbouring areas like Anakaputhur, Old Pallavaram, Chromepet and Tambaram.

The State Government move to remove cattle from the city that has come under fire, finds no echo in the suburbs. The municipalities do not monitor the situation, thereby causing untold sufferings to the people.

A parent S Uma complained, ``When CNN showed buffaloes meandering in New Delhi, we were nodoubt offended. But when over 7,000 children have to wade through kutcha roads, thickly populated by buffaloes, their plight needs to be looked into.''

The buffaloes owned by neighbourhood cowherds are tied and milked on the road to the school. The road, however, has no name but a parent claimed that it was Rajendra Prasad Road. The sight of the buffaloes wading and sitting in the slush is no sight for the weak stomach.

The pot-holed kutcha road is repaired by the buffaloes themselves with their dung. When school authorities had asked the cowherds to move the buffaloes to some spot at least during the morning, the cowherds responded by tethering more buffaloes along the road the very next day!

The cowherds have reportedly replied to the school authorities that they have been doing so for many years and have no intention of moving out.

With the monsoon setting in, the slush compounds the problems. Barriers kept to obstruct heavy vehicles plying on the kutcha road have been removedthereby putting the already chaotic traffic into reverse gear.

Children who have to walk down the road have to contend with both the vehicles and the buffaloes.

A parent who managed to escape being gored by three buffaloes nurses a wound on her hand. She walked unaware of the danger from the buffaloes until they attacked her. She has been in the forefront of raising awareness among other parents on the issue.

As a result, three housewives undertook the task of a signature campaign by the parents of St Theresa's HSS. Over 200 parents have signed the petition which was been handed over to the Cantonment Commissioner a month ago.

Authorities had assured them that road laying will begin soon as tenders have been floated for the contract. What is more shocking is that the local councilor lives diagonally opposite the school and has to travel through the muck himself.

The very next day brought some relief as sand was cleared from the roads ad some heads of cattle were hauled away. The relief wasshort-lived. The buffaloes returned to their muddy pasture after a fine was paid by the cowherds.

Since the roads are slushy, the children have been exempted from wearing shoes. As a consequence, some even come bare-footed which make them ready targets of leptospirosis as the disease travels from animals to humans easily. Parents who come to drop their children at school also nurse infections on their feet thanks to exposure to dung.

There have been occasions when some children were sent home after they lost their footing and landed in the dung. If this is not enough, the cowherds bathe the buffaloes early in the day and again late evening.