Stray cows will soon have 1,000 shelters to call their homes in Madhya Pradesh.
As part of ‘Project Gaushala’, the State government plans to move 7 lakh stray cows and bulls to shelters close to villages.
“First, let’s not call them
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Each
Each cow will be provided not less than ₹20 worth sawdust and fodder from deep mangers every day. For this, the State government in this year’s budget has set aside ₹132 crore.
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Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers have been roped in to build the gaushala s at a cost of ₹300 crore, being drawn from the scheme. Under the watch of gram panchayats, self-help groups and NGOs working for the welfare of cows will manage the shelters, once their bid to operate them is approved by Zila Gaupalan Samitis headed by District Collectors. Mr. Rokdesaid, “We will transfer funds for the feed to managers in four instalments in a year.”
Not all stray
Not all the cattle on the streets, however, are stray, he said. “As many as 13 lakh cattle have breeders and are left to roam streets and graze fields during the day. They won’t be moved to the shelters.”
Over the years, admitted Mr. Rokde, with stricter implementation of the Madhya Pradesh Gauvansh Vadh Pratishedh Adhiniyam, the State’s cow slaughter prevention law, especially close to the State’s porous borders to catch those transporting cattle illegally, the numbers of stray cattle has shot up.