KMC sterilises stray bulls to fight cattle menace on Kota roads
With a view to curb the menace of stray cattle on city roads, the Kota Municipal Corporation (KMC) has started sterilising (castration) stray bulls of “nondescript (inferior) breed”.
Stray cattle, mostly bulls, moving on roads are a common sight in Kota, selected among the four cities of Rajasthan under the Smart City Project. These stray cattle on the city roads not just disrupt traffic movement, but also pose threat to the commuters. This year, around halfa-dozen people have died on the city roads due to the cattle menace.
Now, the KMC has started castrating bulls abandoned on the city roads to check their number. “Cattle breeders abandon their cattle once they stop giving milk or are useless to them and such cattle create menace on the city roads. So, KMC has started performing sterilisation of the nondescript bulls,” Pawan Agarwal, chairman, Goshala Samiti, KMC told HT.
“Of the total stray cattle caught from the city roads, more than 80% are bulls. Only a handful of the bulls are of elite breed, whereas most of them are of nondescript breed, which cannot produce quality progeny,” said Agarwal.
“Such nondescript bulls are sent to the Bandha Dharampura Gaushala of KMC and sterilised,” he added.
The Bandha Dharampura Gaushala had a capacity to keep around 1400 cows/bulls, which has been doubled recently.
RN Rawat, a veterinary doctor at the Bandha Dharampura Gaushala, said castration of the bulls is done according to the cattle breeding policy of the Union and state governments, so as to prevent the breeding of inferior quality cattle. Simultaneously, they are also vaccinated for the foot and mouth disease, he added.
“Rajasthan government provides an incentive of ₹50 per cattle for castration of the nondescript cattle,” said Rawat.
Explaining about the castration process, Rawat said spermatic chord carrying semen to the testicles of the bull is stroked through castrator tool and crushed, after which testicles get regressed within a few days of time. “After castration, production of hormones stops in the bullock, thereby reducing the animal’s furious nature and also improving its health,” he said.
About 350 bulls have been castrated in the last 10 days with the help of a mobile veterinary unit of the animal husbandry department. Around 1,000 stray cattle were caught by the KMC from the city roads during the same period.