BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s Animal Husbandry Department has been facing a harrowing time in ensuring that stray cattle do not disrupt vehicular movement on city roads. Last year, the fine levied on owners of stray cattle was increased from `100 to `600, but this has clearly not deterred them.
“Every week, the department gets several complaints. Owners do not care for rules and in some cases even abuse officials,” said Dr Chenga Reddy, assistant director of the Animal Husbandry Department at BBMP, adding that they had brought the matter to the notice of higher officials.
“From June to November 2014, the department seized 442 cattle, out of which 307 were calves. As per the new penalties, owners will be charged `600 for the first three days and `300 per day would be added after that,” Reddy said.
The civic agency has been facing problems as it has only one centralised cattle shelter and keeping lactating cows carries some risk. “If we do not milk the seized cow, it will suffer from mastitis. If the cow is milked, the owner will find fault with the Palike,” said Dr K A Nanjappa, in-charge joint director, Animal Husbandry Department.
The BBMP has filed an affidavit in court seeking to set up cattle shelters in each zone to ease the pressure on the existing one. Many complaints are not attended to as the Palike has only one hydraulic lorry that has the capacity to transport four animals at a time.
“We can keep more seized animals if there are more shelters. This will also help the civic agency increase its revenue. Last year, `1.72 lakh was generated through these penalties,” Reddy said.
B Dayananda, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic Department, said, “Our men always inform the BBMP if they spot such animals in busy traffic as it creates a lot of problems for vehicle users and the traffic police.”