KURNOOL: Ksheerasagara Sadanam, a cattle hostel built with NREGS funds of ₹2 crore on the outskirts of Thadakanapalle village in Kallur mandal in Kurnool district, envisaged to accommodate 300 cattle in four sheds, has only 35 buffaloes and a dozen calves in one shed.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the cattle hostel, said to be the first of its kind in the State, on January 2 as part of Swacha Bharat Abhiyan to ensure cleanliness of farmers’ houses by shifting cattle to the outskirts, but only five farmers volunteered to keep their 35 buffaloes there, and of them 10 are milk-yielding. An equal number of cattle can be accommodated in the first shed and three more sheds are vacant.
Farmers in Thadakanapalle have 102 buffaloes, while adjoining Vamasamudram, Obulapuram Thanda and Bhairavapuram too own cattle, and efforts are being made to persuade farmers to leave their cattle in the hostel, cattle hostel managing committee member Zubaida Bi told The Hindu in Thadakanapalle.
The committee is overseeing the cleaning and feeding of the cattle, and the farmers are milking their cattle now. Water supply has been arranged for the cattle sheds. An electric milching machine was procured, but farmers are reluctant to use it.
The buffaloes are fed with one kg of protein-rich azolla, 15 kg silage, two kg of cattle feed, 10 kg of ‘danamrutham’ processed grass. The farmer has to pay ₹100 per buffalo per day for it, Ms. Zubaida Bi said.
A villager Chand Bi said her eight buffaloes, which gave 12 litres of milk earlier, were now giving 20 litres of milk. A veterinary doctor Nagaraju of Chinnatekur examined the cattle and said they needed deworming.
The village tank was desilted and it led to recharging of about 200 borewells. Women of 552 families in the village are members of a Gramaikya Sangham and 250 women were allotted 125 acres of land for farming in 2014. Ninety-three vermicompost units were sanctioned, and of them, 68 were ready.
Avenue plantation was taken up with 1,700 plants in Thadakanapalle, which has cement roads, DWMA assistant project director H.D. Eeranna, who is Panyam cluster in charge, said.
