Jammu short on space to shelter abandoned cows

While ‘gau rakshaks’ have been turned into a weapon of ‘intimidation’, no efforts are being made to prevent abandoning of cattle on the roads by people, especially those which are unable to give milk and are old.
Across Jammu city and on the highway connecting J&K with the rest of the country, hundreds of cattle, especially cows and oxen, can be found roaming, raising questions on the BJP’s ‘save cow’ slogan.
During the past three years, no step has been taken to set up a new cattle pond to lower the pressure on the existing single cattle ponds run by the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) in the Shankutala area, which is overcrowded. There is only one cattle pond run by the corporation shelter which has 60 cows and oxen.
Same is the situation of cattle rehabilitation centres run by social organisations at Amphalla, Jeevan Nagar and Gadi Garh on voluntarily donations, which are also short on space. They mostly retain unwanted cattle saving them from the butcher’s knife.
According to a senior municipal official, though animals lifted by the corporation are handed over to their owners by imposing fine, the old cattle remain unclaimed. After some time due to paucity of space, these are set free to create space for new ones.
“Rather than thrashing people, ‘gau rakshaks’ should create awareness among people about the need to rehabilitate old cattle which are abandoned by their owners. They should work more on raising funds to help private cattle shelters. It will also help in curbing smuggling as abandoned animals become an easy target,” said Kartar Chand, a local resident of Satwari.
According to Municipal Veterinary Officer Jaswant Singh, last year they had lifted 950 cattle recovering a fine of Rs 4.75 lakh and this year till August, about 300 cattle have been lifted, which mostly remained unclaimed.
“We hand over the cattle to their owners after imposing fine. But this has not having any effect as people continue to violate the rules and allow cattle to roam on the roads. This is a serious issue and we are facing a lot of problems,” said Jaswant Singh. Stray cattle also pose danger to drivers as their abrupt appearance on road leads to fatal accidents.