like other cities, the holy town of Puri too witnesses stray cattle menace. To keep them away from crowds during Nabakalebar Rath Yatra, the Puri Municipality with help of the Veterinary department has started a drive to relocate stray bulls in a Kine house at least for the festival period.
As around 50 lakh devotees are expected to throng Puri during the grand festival, taking bulls out of the Grand Road and other crowded roads has been felt a necessity.
Over 2,000 stray animals are found in Puri town, and around 500 of them move around the Bada Danda every day. The bulls often lock horns and injure pilgrims in the pilgrim town.
The Kine house is located on a 28-acre land at Chhaitana on the outskirts of the Puri town. It has been planned to keep 500 animals in the kine house. Besides, the Hariharananda Ashram has also evinced interest to rehabilitate stray bulls in their Gaushala, adjacent to the kine house. All basic facilities like rest shed, drinking water and fodder are available inside the Gaushala and the Kine house.
The stray animals from the Grand Road and other places of the town are being captured by a NGO, “Thenga Bahini” and brought to the kine house and Gaushala. By now, 521 bulls have been kept in the Gaushala and 319 in the Kine house. AH & VS Director Debi Prasad Panda is constantly monitoring the arrangements. Joint Director of the department Dr Manas Ranjan Mohapatra is also stationed at Puri to supervise the work.
The Veterinary department has engaged some employees to take care of animals at the two cow-shelter houses. They are involved in controlling, feeding and providing health care services to these stray animals.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Minister Pradeep Maharathy visited the Kine house on July 15 and appreciated the efforts. He also instructed to construct two more rest sheds for animals inside the Kine house immediately.
F& ARD Secretary Bishnupada Sethi took stock of the situation on the day. Chief District Veterinary Officer, Puri revealed to him that 10 metric tonnes of Omfed cattle feed and 3 MTs of other feed from a local market have been procured for feeding these animals. Besides, 60 quintals of green fodder collected from CIFA campus, Bhubaneswar and 42 quintals of paddy straw have also been procured for these animals.
Fresh clean water is provided by constructing three water troughs inside the Kine house. Adequate medicines and vaccines have been kept in stock. Veterinary teams, each consisting of a Veterinary Doctor, a livestock Inspector and an attendant, are now on duty in three shifts. Additional staffs have been deployed by the Khordha and Nayagarh districts to assist the Veterinary teams.