Yogi govt comes up with dos and don’ts for cows — from diet to disposing of carcass

UP CM Yogi Adityanath | @myogiadityanath/Twitter

In advisory, Yogi Adityanath govt makes post-mortem compulsory in cases of suspicious death of cattle, warns of penalty for abandonment of cows.

Lucknow: The Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has issued a comprehensive cow advisory, stating that a post-mortem is mandatory in cases of suspicious death of cattle while reiterating that there is a penalty for those who abandon their milch animals.

The 23-page advisory, which also deals with cow nutrition among others, comes amid a stray cattle menace in the state that has seen irate farmers lock up the animals to prevent the destruction of crops. It follows a slew of cow-related measures that the BJP government in UP has rolled out in recent months.

The advisory, dated January 28, is marked to all senior government officials in Lucknow, district magistrates and district police chiefs.

“A panchanama is compulsory for disposing of cattle carcasses in cases where death has happened due to natural causes,” reads the advisory issued by the animal husbandry department. “When the cause of death is suspicious, a post-mortem examination is necessary.”

It further states that within two weeks, the Urban Development and Panchayati Raj departments should draw up a plan for proper disposal of cattle carcass through incineration. Maintaining that government departments need to take care of the cremation expenses, it has called for funds to be sought from “self-help groups” and “associations involved with religious activities”.

Details measures to combat stray cattle menace

Addressing the farmer-stray cattle conflict in several parts of the state, the advisory has called for “all stray cattle at the village level to be identified”, adding that for this, “cattle would need to be tagged”.

“Keeping the number of stray cattle in view, provision for tags in the state budget should be made,” reads the advisory. “Technology like bar coding and RFID tagging should be used.”

To prevent people from abandoning cattle, the government has urged officials to take action as per the UP municipal and panchayat raj laws and the Police Act.

Referring to a government order issued on 2 October 2017, the advisory reads, “There is provision for imposing a penalty on those who abandon cattle. On similar lines, model laws need to be made to regulate commercial dairies in urban areas.”

Specifies nutrition and shelter

The government, in the advisory, has not only specified the timing for feeding cattle, but it also has details of nutrition. According to the government, cattle food should comprise of 10 per cent vegetables and fibre and 90 per cent fodder.

“Molasses and jaggery should also be given so that govansh ko avashyak urja mile (cattle receive the necessary energy),” reads the advisory, adding that cattle “must be fed at the same time so that the animals do not fight among themselves” and wherever possible “animals belonging to the same age should be kept together in small groups”.

For identifying land for cow shelters, land owned by different government departments, cooperative societies and other government-funded organisations needs to be earmarked as per law.

“Since the process of allocation of land belonging to other departments could be a long process, the process of identifying land and changing land use should begin immediately,” reads the advisory. “Land for grazing which falls under the revenue department can also be used for setting up temporary cow shelters.”