Bhubaneswar: With stray cattle menace increasing in the capital, establishment of two kine houses may not solve the problem. To make this project successful, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) needs to introduce a smart tagging system.
The corporation is planning to establish a kine house for cows at Patrapada and another for bulls at Jamukoli. But, experts believe that these kine houses alone will not tackle the problem of increasing number of stray cattle in the city.
Currently, the city has around 100 stray bulls and their number is increasing by the day. That is because many people believe that bull is the vehicle of Lord Shiva, the presiding deity of Bhubaneswar, and hence they release them in temple city to “earn virtue”.
Therefore, without curbing this practice the civic body’s move to translocate the stray cattle may not help in achieving the desired results. Besides, some people release the domestic cattle in the city for grazing. The corporation can solve both these issues through tagging the animals.
“The BMC has to come up with two-coloured tagging system. The corporation has to give a particular colour tag for stray cattle and a different colour tag for domestic cattle. For example, a yellow tag can be assigned to stray cattle and a blue tag for domestic cattle. The blue tag must also have an identification system for identifying the owner. So, if these blue-tagged cattle are found on street the owner can be identified and fined for the offence,” said Biplab Mahapatra, chief functionary, People for Animals, Angul.
Similarly, the corporation can also come up with awareness campaigns and other initiatives to deal with release of bulls in the temple city.
“The civic body has to come up with awareness plans to stop the release of bulls in the city. Instead of releasing the bulls in the city, public can make donations to the kine houses. In fact, this can curb the practice and the corporation will also get some revenue for running the kin houses,” said eminent environmentalist Sunder Narayan Patro.
Meanwhile, experts also pointed out that the corporation must take necessary steps to prevent the spread of diseases in kine houses. “If the corporation is planning to translocate the stray cattle to kine houses, they must take steps to prevent the spread of disease as some of them may have common diseases like foot and mouth. Therefore, efforts must be made to ensure cleanliness at these facilities and veterinarians must also regularly monitor the animals.
Spread of disease in such a facility can create public outcry and every precaution must be taken to prevent outbreak of disease in the facility,” said Bhagirathi Behera, former additional principal chief conservator of forest.
With nearly 100 stray bulls roaming the city, the capital might witness an incident similar to the one in Rourkela where a stray bull killed an RPF constable recently. PNN