Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: KVS Giri
Uttarakhand government is planning to give a fixed honorarium to State residents who will adopt the destitute bovine animals. The amount of the honorarium may go up to ₹100 per animal per day, depending upon the maintenance required.
A meeting to speed-up the ambitious bovine adoption scheme of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-lead State government was held in Dehradun on Friday in which chief secretary Radha Raturi said that the administration and general public will have to work together with full sensitivity and humanity so that not a single destitute animal is seen on the roads of Uttarakhand.
Mrs. Radha Raturi further directed the Animal Husbandry Department to immediately prepare guidelines pertaining to honorarium to those who will adopt destitute bovines.
A senior official associated with the project told The Hindu that ₹80 to be given to people per animal and the amount may go up to ₹100 in special cases if the animal is extremely sick and needs extra care.
According to the data provided by the Uttarakhand Animal Welfare Board (UAWB), there are a total of 60 registered bovine shelters in the State in which 14,000 bovines are currently residing. The State has 20,687 destitute bovine animals and in all 13 districts among which Pauri Garhwal has the highest number of 5,525 destitute bovine animals. There are 4,955 destitute animals in Udham Singh Nagar, 2,050 in Dehradun, 2,155 in Nainital and 2,259 in Tehri.
Directing the Panchayati Raj Department to send a proposal to the Finance Department to build bovine shelter homes with the amount of ₹10 crore released for the same, Mrs. Raturi added that departments must raise funds for for the construction of shelter for stray bovine animals this project through CSR.
She has directed to form a committee to monitor the arrangement and condition of stray bovine animals in the shelter homes and on the roads. The department concerned were also directed to ensure mandatory ear tagging of bovine animals reared by the people and cattle keepers in rural areas, so that the owners of stray bovine animals can be tracked.
