Ahmedabad: Homeless cows threat proceeds unabated on the city streets in spite of Gujarat High Court’s intercession and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation chalking out new measures. Indeed, the circumstance has just declined. A senior resident was killed by a stray cow in Kubernagar.
In 2018-19, following the court order, the Cattle Nuisance and Control Department of the AMC had set up eight teams to impound stray cattle. The team included a videographer and five bouncers each; each bouncer was paid Rs 22,000 a month. The corporation spent lakhs on the team during this period.
Later, realising that the expenses were unnecessary, AMC purchased 10 cameras. But even these are not being used and the teams click videos on their cellphone cameras as proof of work done. However, none of this has mitigated the problem.
In all, more than Rs 1 crore was spent on the project, but to no avail.
A PIL was filed in the High Court on the issue; the CNCD department started filing cases against owners of stray cattle and levying penalty.
Later, a survey found that there were more than 2.75 lakh cattle heads roaming on city’s roads. Of these, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag was put on 1.63 lakh cattle heads. The work of impounding stray cattle is being done in two shifts a day; eight teams have been assigned to eight zones and one additional team has also been set up for the purpose.
A senior AMC official told Mirror, “The menace only increases during the monsoon as cattle tend to occupy the roads during the season. The problem during the remaining eight months is negligible.”
Health and Solid Waste Committee Chairman Bharat Patel did not answer calls made by Mirror.
AMC awaits land for animal shelter
The AMC had proposed to set up an animal hostel to lodge stray cattle as a permanent solution to the problem. It had sought land outside the city from Ahmedabad Collector.
The state government too had asked for the land to be allotted, but four years have passed since and AMC still does not have the land for the purpose.