The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has started identifying cattle owners who leave their cattle on the streets with the help of the Uttarakhand Livestock Development Board (ULDB) to take action against them.

In the past few weeks, the number of stray cattle has increased in many areas of the city most of which are cows, bulls, and calves that also increase the risk of road accidents. The officials informed that the corporation is currently providing shelter to about 1,500 stray cattle in various animal shelters like Gau Sadan and Kanji House due to which, picking up new cattle and providing them with required facilities is becoming a challenge for the corporation. Considering this, the senior veterinary officer of the corporation, Dr DC Tiwari said that the corporation is now focussing on sending those cattle back that have ear tags attached by ULDB and have been staying under MCD’s care for over a year. He informed that there are many cows with ear tags attached issued by the board in MCD's animal shelters and he had asked for the details of the owners of these cows from ULDB officials. "We have received the details of the owners of about 40 cows so far and in the past few weeks, we have sent all these cattle back to their owners. Besides this, we have also imposed penalties on these owners through which, we have collected the revenue of about Rs 2.50 lakh," stated Tiwari. He said that insensitivity of the owners is the main cause of stray cattle and by finding out such owners who leave their cattle or their progeny on streets after cattle stop giving milk or become old, MCD is preparing to take stringent action against them. He said that these owners have been warned if they leave these cattle again on the streets or mistreat them, the corporation will take action against them as per the law. He also said that though the corporation is picking up stray cattle, it will intensify the process next month.