Civic agencies must shed bovine lethargy

The surge in cattle on the roads of the national Capital doesn’t seem to have the authorities too concerned, despite two people dying in the last fortnight in stray-cattle-related incidents. The bovine occupation of Delhi presents two problems — one, of disruption to traffic as the cattle wander or sit on the roads; and two, of cattle health and safety as they look for food in the city’s waste, ingesting plastics and other hazardous material in the process.

These cattle are hardly strays, though. They are owned by the many illegal dairies that continue to operate within the city, despite being mandated to shift to planned areas outside the city, where other dairies are located. Without adequate grazing land within city limits, the operators of these dairies let their cattle roam the streets. It is thus not uncommon to find the animals flocking to the city’s garbage dumps. The limited capacity at government-operated cow shelters has exacerbated the “stray” cattle menace — three out of the four designated shelters are already full.

Passing the buck on action is also rather common, given multiple authorities have been assigned different stray-control tasks, and while the respective turfs are defined on paper, there is no possibility of wandering strays adhering to these. So, while the civic agencies claim impressive clearing numbers, these don’t get reflected on the ground. Several court orders have remained mere paper diktats. Even as more space to accommodate confiscated animals needs to be created, there have to be deterrent fines for attempt to reclaim ownership, along with a crackdown on the city’s illegal dairies. Operational responsibility must be made clear to the civic agencies and government departments so that blame-shifting doesn’t happen with as much as ease as now. These steps alone can benefit the city’s residents — and its bovines.

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