Aadhaar-type cards for cows to curb trafficking

The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Monday that in order to tackle illegal smuggling of cows and other cattle, it had accepted the recommendation of an expert group to provide a tamper-proof unique identification number, (UIN) using poly-urethane tags, for the animals.

The Centre gave this response before a bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that was hearing a PIL filed by Akhil Bharat Krishi Goseva Sangh seeking appropriate steps to protect cows and prevent smuggling of cattle into Bangladesh.

The petitioner claimed that there was rampant smuggling of live cattle across the border to Bangladesh, which had led to depletion of the country’s cattle wealth.

Each animal would be tagged with an UIN, with proper record of identification details (age, breed, sex, lactation, height, body colour, horn type, tail switch, etc).

Also, a state-level database may be uploaded on a website that would be linked with a national online database.

State governments bordering Bangladesh may ban livestock markets within 20 km from the international border, the Centre said.

Enforcement agencies working in areas near the India-Bangladesh border must lay emphasis on intelligence and information on smuggling of animals, so that steps could be taken to prevent cattle smuggling, the Centre added.

Each animal would be tagged with an UIN with proper record of identification details (age, breed, sex, etc).

A state-level database would be linked with a national online database.

The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Monday that in order to tackle illegal smuggling of cows and other cattle, it had accepted the recommendation of an expert group to provide a tamperproof unique identification number, (UIN) using poly-urethane tags, for the animals.

The petitioner sought a direction to the Railways to take steps to ensure there was no illegal transportation of cattle across states and to direct Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha, Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal to check illegal transportation of cattle and to check loopholes by which cattle was transported to West Bengal and then to Bangladesh.

The Central government, in its response, said it was widely accepted that the cattle that was smuggled was a byproduct of the dairy industry. Barren cows or bulls or low-yielding animals were sold to organised smugglers or abandoned on roads, from where they are captured and smuggled to the international borders.

The petition said the export of live cattle and buffaloes was prohibited under Section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1952 but due to various syndicates operating, the smuggling of cattle was unchecked and rampant on the porous border with Bangladesh.

The petitioner sought a direction to the Railways to take steps to ensure there was no illegal transportation of cattle across states