North MCD comes up with new mechanism to curb menace of stray cattle on busy Delhi roads; details

The menace of stray cattle clogging Indian roads has been one of the most challenging problems and to check the issue in the national capital, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has come up with a new way to track its owner. The North MCD will make it compulsory for the owners to implant the chip on their cattle.

Leader of the house in North MCD Yogesh Verma told The Indian Express (IE) that a chip with a code would be fed to the cattle by an owner and when found straying on the roads, this chip will help the authorities to identify him, fix responsibilities towards that animal or impose penalties.

The problem of stray cattle arises when they stop milking and their owners or illegal dairies abandon them as they longer are economical. Some of the owners also let their milch cows stray in the morning, getting them back home by evening. The cattle that often congest traffic are the bulls, male calves or older cows. Free-roaming of these cows and bulls is a threat to vehicles as they restrict their movement causing chaos or even accidents.

The corporation, however, is yet to take the call that the expenses included in the process of implanting chips will be borne by the cattle owners or the civic body. They are in the process of framing a policy. The chips will contain every particular of the owner, even his Aadhaar details.

The recent decision was taken after North NCD highlighted that the problem will aggravate in the coming days with 266 illegal dairies still operating in North Delhi and it does not have enough resources to tackle the stray cattle.

The corporation has issued 956 challans to these dairy owners whose animals were found roaming in the roads, letters urging Delhi police to register FIRs were also made and the Delhi Jal Board was asked to cut water supply to these dairies. Cattle-friendly veterinary ambulances that can escort the cattle out of the roads are not adequately available, the MCD further flagged.

The capacity of cattle shelters where most of these stray cattle without owners are sent like Gopal Gausadan, Sri Krishna, Manav Gausadan, Dabur Hare Krishna Gaushala are running full and cannot accommodate further, making it imperative for the corporation to adopt another mechanism to deal with them.

The Supreme Court in 2002, had ordered the shutting down of all dairies operating the urban areas. The erstwhile unified MCD allotted a 188-acre plot near north Delhi’s Narela to develop a separate cattle hub. The corporation provided 2,082 plots in 2004 for dairy farms to move in a phased manner. However, only 120 farmers agreed to shift while the rest refused to relocate their dairies citing reasons like unavailability of water and other facilities.