Known for pushing aggressive “cow protection” measures in the State, the Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana has swung into action to conserve and develop indigenous cattle breeds.
Under the conservation and development of indigenous cattle scheme for current fiscal year 2017-18, ear tags or a microchip that stores information and can be tracked remotely would be attached to high milk yielding cows in the State.
To begin with, the Haryana Government has set a target to identify 2,000 indigenous Hariana, Sahiwal and Belani breed of cows during the current financial year and fasten ear tags on them.
Cash incentives ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 would be given to the owners of these cows. Also, all these cows will be got insured and a proper record of these identified animals would be maintained by the concerned Veterinary Hospital.
While this ambitious scheme was to be implemented during last fiscal, the State Government could not initiate the project and decided to begin the process of identifying high-yielding indigenous cattle this year.
The project aims at increasing overall milk production in the state and to achieve Haryana’s target to surpass Punjab in term of milk production and become number one State in the country in this field.
Under the scheme, the government will focus on preservation and conservation of indigenous cattle breeds to increase per capita per day availability of milk from 835 millilitre to 1050 millilitre by 2022, and to increase overall milk production from 83 lakh tons to 112 lakh tons, with annual increase of 5 per cent.
While the ear tagging of bovine species in gaushalas of Haryana is already in progress, the government would also identify high milk yielding indigenous cattle in the state in a separate ear tagging process. The ear tags for high-yielding cows would be radio frequency identification device (RFID) tags holding information about cows’ date of birth, breed, lactation cycle, calving details, the amount of milk they give and will assist in differentiating similar-looking cattle.
“As per the scheme chalked out by the government, 2000 indigenous cattle breeds namely Hariana, Sahiwal and Belani, meeting the bench mark of 8 kg peak yield, 10 kg peak yield and 5 kg peak yield respectively would be identified during the current fiscal 2017-18,” said a senior official of Haryana Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department while talking to The Pioneer.
He said that the scheme will be implemented with an objective of identification of top quality germplasm and insemination with quality semen for sustainable genetic improvement and to encourage the farmers to rear better yielding animals.
With the implementation of this scheme, it is expected that germplasm bank would become available from where other states and organization can meet their demand for good quality genetic material required to upgrade their stock, he added.
In the past, lack of concerted efforts towards genetic improvement of the indigenous cattle breeds has contributed to their gradual decline in the State.
Haryana has 18.08 lakh cattle. Out of total cattle population, 8.12 lakh are indigenous cattle and 9.96 lakh are exotic/cross bred cattle, as per the 2012 livestock census.
The BJP led Haryana Government has also planned to construct 40 cow sanctuaries in a phased manner to accommodate more than 1.18 lakh stray cattle in the state. Among various initiatives of State Government for cow protection includes issuing identity cards to gau rakshaks, appointing a senior IPS officer to monitor cases of cow smuggling in the State and banning consumption of beef.
Haryana Government had in 2015 enforced Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gau Samvardhan Act 2015 making cow slaughter punishable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
