Delhi civic body plans to outsource capture of stray cattle
HT reported in August that at least two people died in the city due to stray cattle within a fortnight august 26, 2024HT reported how the number of stray cattle on city roads had steadily increased
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is planning to outsource the work to catch stray cattle in the Capital by hiring private “cattle catching trucks” and manpower in a bid to tackle the resource crunch in the veterinary department, senior municipal officials aware of the matter said.
The plan is being floated weeks after the Delhi high court directed MCD to consider establishing dedicated helplines to report stray cattle, facilitate prompt action and engage the community to monitor and report these instances. A senior MCD official said the civic body held a review meeting where the decision to outsource the work was taken.
HT reported in August that at least two people died in the city due to stray cattle within a fortnight, pointing to the larger problem of dozens of illegal dairies operating in the Capital that let their bovines out to scavenge from garbage dumps and roadside shrubs.
According to the official cited above, each cattle-catching truck will comprise at least five people, including drivers, catchers and people to load the bovines onto the truck. “We plan to deploy at least 12 such trucks in the 12 administrative zones. This will add around 60 personnel on the ground to bolster the drives,” the official said, asking not to be named.
This official added that 49 cattle catchers are currently deployed across Delhi by the civic body, along with 20 trucks owned by MCD. “A total of 16 trucks were available with the erstwhile municipal corporations and four new units were purchased. Along with these 20 units, we are now taking up 12 trucks through private agencies which will include drivers, workers and necessary modifications. This will help address the shortage of staff and the infrastructure, too, will be ramped up,” he said.
Under the existing arrangement, MCD is tasked with capturing stray cattle from the streets and transporting them to the cow shelters designated by the Delhi government. Both the Delhi government and MCD provide ₹20 each per day per bovine, as assistance to these cow shelters.The cattle are caught with the help of ropes and feed. They are loaded onto the trucks with the help of hydraulic lift in more advanced trucks.
According to MCD data, 9,984 head of cattle have been impounded this year between January and July.
Lack of space at cow shelters
At the designated cow shelters, impounded bovines are taken care of under the administrative control of the animal husbandry department, which ear tags each animal for identification. There were five designated cow shelters in the city till 2018. However, one unit, Acharya Sushil Muni in August 2018, was shut down due to rampant mismanagement in 2018 and has not been reopened since.
The remaining four — Gopal Gausadan in Harewali village, Sri Krishna in Bawana, Manav Gausadan in Rewla Khanpur, and Dabur Hare Krishna Gaushala in Surhera — are located on the periphery of the city.
“We have requested the animal husbandry department to open more gaushalas and reopen Acharya Sushil Muni cow shelter several times, as the existing units are packed to capacity. There should be more cow shelters in other areas so that resources are conserved from transporting them all the way to Najafgarh and Bawana.
According to the current occupancy status, the four gaushalas currently have a total of 18,074 impounded cattle — 3,647 in Gopal Gausadan, 8,345 in Sri Krishna, 828 in Manav Gausadan, and 5,254 in Dabur Hare Krishna Gaushala. There is no estimated count of illegal dairies but most of them are located in urban villages and unauthorised areas.
A second official said that the veterinary department has also been asked to rework the protocols and routes for the transportation of the cattle to the designated cow shelters. “All four operational gaushalas are located in outer Delhi. Officials have been told not to wait till they capture an adequate number to initiate the transportation. Designated locations may be fixed to hold them temporarily,” the second official added, also requesting anonymity.
While captured stray cattle are sent to cow shelters, buffaloes are kept in cattle ponds and later auctioned.
The second official added the animal husbandry department is also in the process of forming a dedicated task force. MCD has currently deployed 122 multi-task staff to catch stray cattle and dogs.
Meanwhile, locals and residents’ welfare associations said that the measures are too little to have an impact as most regions continue to be plagued by stray cattle despite dozens of complaints. The problem is directly linked to the illegal dairies operating in the residential areas.
Chitra Jain, general secretary of the New Friends Colony RWA (Ashoka Park), said: “Taimoor Nagar has a huge cattle problem, who are on the roads from evening onwards. We have asked the officials supervising the village to ensure they do not obstruct roads, but they are helpless,” she added.
On August 13, a 75-year-old man was killed after he was attacked by a cow while on an evening walk in Rohini. Just two days later, another man was killed when his motorcycle struck a cow on Outer Ring Road near Burari. Once restricted only to areas on the city’s outskirts or near rural belts, stray cattle have slowly but steadily become a common sight throughout Delhi, sparing not even residential localities in the heart of the Capital.
They often sit in the middle of roads, disrupting traffic on expressways and feeding on roadside shrubs and waste. The threat they pose to residents increases exponentially at night, particularly in areas that are not well-lit. With a drop in traffic, cattle often occupy the middle of the road, where they become a hazard for motorists.