UP ropes in private firms to catch stray cattle

Can you catch 100 stray cows a month? The Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh has a job for you. The State government has invited bids from private players to handle the stray cows menace whose numbers are rising alarmingly leading to unrest among farming community and city dwellers both.

This particular requirement is for the country’s longest 302-km-long Agra-Lucknow Expressway where cattle are causing lots of fatal accidents forcing the government to take an unusual step.

Apart from massive damage of crops, several people have lost life across the State after being attacked by stray cattle whose numbers have surged over the last three years since the BJP government came up with stringent rules to ban the slaughter of cow and its progeny.

The government claims to have set-up hundreds, ‘Gau-shalas’ to provide unproductive cows a home and even announced to establish ‘cow safaris’ and has adopted gender selection for insemination to produce only female cows. The efforts turned out to be inadequate.

The company will have to meet the target of catching at least 100 animals per month. If they fail to do so, a penalty of Rs 100 per animal would be levied on them. There is an incentive if they exceed the targets, says the tender document released 7 March.

The agency will have to prevent trespassing of animals on the Expressway and will be allowed to us loudspeakers to warn speeding vehicles of the cattle-catching exercise.