BENGALURU: The state government on Tuesday informed the High Court that transportation of fodder outside the state has been restricted to prevent exploitation of the drought situation by traders.
This statement was made before a vacation division bench of Justice S Sujatha and Justice S G Pandit, which was hearing public interest litigation filed by one Mallikarjuna seeking directions to the state government to take measures for the welfare of drought-affected animals.
Transportation of fodder outside the state has been restricted to ensure availability of fodder here, the government said in the compliance report submitted to the court.
The government also explained that 62.16 lakh tonnes of dry fodder (5 kg per animal per day) is available in the state as of May 13, 2019, which is expected to be sufficient for 13 weeks. The management of fodder availability in the state is represented in the milk procurement data from the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which shows that there was no drop in milk procurement by milk unions.
In support of its claim, the state provided the statistics of milk procurement per day. According to it, the average milk procurement recorded by KMF per day was 71.72 lakh kg, 69.25 lakh kg, 69.17 lakh kg, 70.22 lakh kg and 73.52 lakh kg in January, February, March, April and May, respectively.
According to the report, the state has 129 lakh heads of major cattle (including buffaloes) and 143 lakh heads of minor cattle (sheep and goat), which are fodder dependent. Out of the total major cattle heads, 88.82 lakh are milch animals.
During 2018-19, the government declared 156 taluks as drought affected. And these taluks have 75.31 lakh major cattle heads and 114.35 lakh minor cattle heads.
Additionally, to facilitate green fodder production, farmers with irrigation facilities were being given fodder seeds mini-kits in a phased manner since August 2018. About 63 lakh green fodder produced out of these is being utilised by farmers to feed their milch animals. The state has also informed the court that to overcome the scarcity of fodder in the ensuing days, mitigation measures were being taken like the setting up of 21 cattle camps in 156 drought-affected taluks.
So far, 14,816 animals have been housed in these camps, 897.34 tonnes of fodder have been stored and 306.03 tonnes have been utilised in these camps.