Stray cattle menace: UP govt steps up efforts, zila panchayats asked to launch cattle-catching drives
Officials have identified around a dozen districts where stray cattle are creating a lot of problems for farmers and the common man
The Yogi Adityanath government has stepped up efforts to contain the menace of stray cattle that still exists in many districts. Besides, it has also taken fresh steps to ensure a comfortable stay of the cattle already in cow protection centres, people dealing with the issue said.
After a series of meetings held at the level of the chief minister, the chief secretary and the agriculture production commissioner, officials have identified around a dozen districts where stray cattle are creating a lot of problems for farmers and the common man.
“The government has decided to rope in zila panchayats (ZPs) to carry out a cattle-catching campaign in the rural areas of the districts identified as was done in the cities,” an animal husbandry department official said. “The same plan may be executed in other districts as well later depending upon the results in the districts identified for the purpose,” he added.
The move comes after the government received feedback that abandoned cattle was still a big issue, especially in around a dozen districts, where they were destroying crops and attacking people taking care of crops in the fields. It was also found that there was no system of catching such cattle in villages and neither were there caretakers and watchmen in cow shelters.
Expressing concern over the situation, chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, during a meeting last week, directed officials to engage cattle catchers, if needed, and put the cattle safely into cow shelters in districts where the stray cattle problem was a serious issue.
“In a follow-up meeting called by APC Alok Sinha it was decided that the responsibility to catch stray cattle should be given to ZPs in around a dozen worst-affected districts such as Gonda, Shrawasti, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Mahoba, Chitrakoot, Banda and Ghazipur,” the official said.
The panchayati raj department, he said, might soon be asked to appoint caretakers and watchmen in cow shelters running in the rural areas.
On Friday, Sinha issued detailed written instructions to the department of urban development and panchayati raj asking them to take appropriate steps for availability of adequate fodder in cow shelters and ensure proper arrangements for saving cattle there from the cold and fog.
Currently, there are around 5,500 cow protection centres or cow shelters housing more than six lakh stray cattle in the state.