In a bid to tackle the problem of stray cattle in the State, Haryana Government on Tuesday announced to construct 40 cow sanctuaries in a phased manner.

Animal Husbandry and Dairy Minister OP Dhankar on Tuesday informed the State Assembly that a fresh livestock census would be conducted for counting the stray cattle in the State.

As per 2012 livestock census, Haryana has livestock population of 89.98 lakh, out of which 18.08 lakh are cattle. There are 1.17 lakh stray cattle in the State, out of

which 85,000 are in rural areas and 32,000 are in urban areas, he said.

“To accommodate 1.17 lakh stray cattle, about 40 cow sanctuaries would be established in a phased manner. In order to accomplish this objective, the Government has initiated steps to identify and earmark the land pools for establishing these sanctuaries at the strategic locations in various parts of the State,” said the Minister while replying to a calling attention motion on the problem of stray cattle.

These cow sanctuaries will be established over an area of about 50 to 100 acres of land. And, the cost of civil works, machinery and equipment for one ‘cow sanctuary’ will be Rs 4.30 crore, Dhankar informed.

Giving the details of the gaushalas in the State, Dhankar said Haryana has a network of 408 Gaushalas housing 3,06,490 animals. Of these 392 are registered and 16 are unregistered. There are 3,04,833 animals in registered Gaushalas and 1,657 in unregistered ones.

The Haryana Gau Seva Aayog has been reconstituted by Haryana Government for the preservation and welfare of cows in the State, said he adding that to provide adequate financial aid to Gaushalas, a grant-in-aid of Rs 9.20 crore for the year 2015-16 and Rs 20 crore for the year 2016-17 has been provided by the Government to Gau Seva Aayog in the Budget.