Bhubaneswar: The common sight on busy streets here is stray cattle. They laze around, nonchalantly chewing cud and giving a harrowing time to passersby as well as two and four wheeler drivers.
Stray cattle are culprits in a majority of accidents that are reported from different parts of the city every day. For instance, “A motorist two days ago near busy Kalpana Square received injuries after one of the two fighting bulls ran into him,” said Narayan Chandra Ojha of Disha, a city-based organisation. He also pointed out that two months ago a minor girl got killed at Badagarh Brit colony (said to be) due to bull fight. In the night, stray cattle pose threat to the motorists as visibility is poor.
As the civic body is yet to find a solution to the cattle menace in general and the roaming bulls’ problem in particular, dangers on the road are alarmingly increasing.
When contacted, Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said BMC is yet to have systems and kine houses particularly for bulls. While bulls cannot be kept at the lone kine house in the city at Kharavel Nagar along with cows and calves, it will also be a herculean task to catch a sturdy bull. Moreover, the kine house can accommodate only 10 heads of cattle. With their number increasing every day, the problem is becoming worse.
Resting and roaming cattle are common sights in areas like Old Town, Master Canteen Square, Rasulgarh Square and Khandagiri Square. “Because of their increasing number and their uncontrolled movement, we are always afraid of them, particularly when children are with us, said Pratap Panda, a city dweller.
Narayan Chandra Ojha of Disha also alleged that cattle owners habitually let the animals loose on the roads to fend for themselves. Only when they deliver calves, their owners get them back to their houses, obviously for milk.
While the responsibility rests with the BMC to collar the stray cattle and take them to the kine house, it miserably has failed to do that. However, the kine house problem is one among others that the BMC will do away with this year.
“The problem of stray cattle will be solved in one month’s time as a new kine house at a cost of01 crore on 2 acres of land at Jamukoli, 14 km from the state capital, will be ready. It will have separate sheds for cows, calves and bulls. There will be separate ghat facilities for feed and water. There will also be a vet,” said Mayor Jena.
There is another site for a kine house at Patrapada, on city outskirts, he added. Efforts are on to settle some land disputes there, and when the land becomes free from disputes, it will help bring the stray cattle menace to an end.
Now, the civic body has two vehicles to catch cows and employs 14 to seize the stray bovines. The kine house collects `500 for a cow per day and `100 gets multiplied with each passing day from their owners. Similarly, `300 per day and `150 for each passing day are collected in case of calves, sources said.
PNN
