With the stray cattle problem becoming a menace and giving opposition parties a hammer to beat the Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has told the district officials to ensure that stray cattle are shifted to state-run cow shelters by January 10 otherwise action would be taken against them.
The government took this decision following reports from all parts of the state about stray cattle destroying crops, forcing the farmers to lock the animals in government premises like school buildings and hospitals.
The Chief Minister issued the directive through video conference in which he asked the district officials to make state-run cow shelters operational and shift all the stray cattle there.
“Release stray animals from government compounds and initiate action against those who had locked them there,” he said.
Yogi said that stray cattle were creating a nuisance in villages and clogging roads. He said these cattle should not be allowed to create havoc.
The Chief Minister asked the district magistrates to ensure that farmers and others do not face any problems due to stray cattle. He said the district magistrates should impose fines on those who come to the cow shelters to claim their cattle after abandoning them.
Yogi directed the authorities to ensure proper fencing at cow shelters, fodder and veterinary care.
He said help should be sought from traders, businessmen and people’s representatives for running the ‘kanji houses’ (shelters were cows are kept).
Farmers let loose those animals which become unproductive and have stopped giving milk. Finding it hard to feed them, the farmers release the cattle which roam around the village and graze crop. The problem is not new but it has aggravated as the farmers now find it difficult to sell the cattle to traders.
Professor RK Yadav of the department of genetics and plant breeding at Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, said these stray cattle were a big nuisance. “They damage the crop and months’ of hard work of the farmers is reduced to nothing within no time,” he said.
To protect their crop from these marauding herds, the farmers are keeping night vigil in this biting cold.
Shyam Bihari, a villager from Etmadpur in Agra, said that many farmers have fallen sick after guarding crop in the cold weather and so the villagers are forced to lock the stray animals in school compounds. “What other option do we have?” he asked.
Stray cattle have caused death of many farmers. In many parts of UP, particularly Bundelkhand, a few farmers had committed suicide after their crop was damaged by stray cattle. In Kheri, a stray bull brutally killed a farmer on Wednesday when he tried to shoo it away. The bull ripped the farmer’s belly with its horns. He was rushed to hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead.
This scenario has made the Yogi government an easy target of the opposition. “The Yogi government has failed to protect crop of farmers because of its whimsical policies. Farmers are suffering in this regime. They are producing crop but it is damaged by gau mata and this government is doing nothing,” said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary said.