Cattle - Rearing in cities must be regulated
That cities have a problem with stray cattle is no surprise. However, a viral video of a stray cow repeatedly attacking a nine-year-old schoolgirl in Chennai brought home the dangers of the phenomenon.
The city’s residents and commuters have noticed a visible rise in stray cattle on the city’s streets, especially since the pandemic. The Chennai Corporation does have a mechanism by which cattle owners can be penalized—impounding the cattle till the owner pays a hefty fine. However, this is a remedy that relies on enforcement.
Of late, there is a perception that enforcement has been lacking. Cows and buffaloes, which earlier roamed the streets at night, now stray through busy thoroughfares in the daytime, sometimes holding up traffic or causing accidents. This week’s incident involved a cow, part of a herd moving through a residential area, that grew so agitated by the presence of a child walking nearby that it threw her on the ground and repeatedly gored her. Thankfully, the child has survived.
Yet, while enforcement could indeed be strengthened as the Corporation now promises, it is essential to consider why cattle in the city run loose through traffic, hardly the most felicitous atmosphere for an animal. Aside from the harm caused by traffic accidents, the cattle also end up grazing on garbage,
consuming plastic and other materials that affect their health and well-being.
The cattle reared in a metropolitan city like Chennai are mainly for dairy farming. The milk they produce sustains their owners’ families and meets local demand. However, cities lack grounds and open spaces where the cattle can roam freely. Till there is demand for the product of the cattle, it is safe to assume they will be reared in the city despite the troubles involved in doing so.
The local body can engage with the cattle owners and find a way for the cattle to graze—through licensing of cattle and providing some grazing land, for instance. Chennai is a city that, in its growth, has gobbled up less urbanized spaces while even pockets of its heart have those who rear cattle and chicken to bolster their income; informal economies, whether in livestock-rearing, street-vending, etc., are integral to the city’s success. Addressing the issue of livestock-rearing in urban spaces by carrying along all stakeholders will likely have better results than relying solely on penalties.