State shivers as intense cold wave continues

LUCKNOW:The entire state was in the grip of intense cold with Churk in Sonbhandra area being coldest at 0.8 degree Celsius, eight degrees below normal.

Muzaffarnagar chilled at 1 degree, Kanpur City 1.6 and Taj city Agra had 1.9 degree Celsius, which was five degrees below normal. The state capital was relatively better at 6.7°C, a notch below normal, while the maximum temperature was 12.3°C, 10 degrees below normal.

A severe cold day is when the maximum temperature is 6.4 degrees Celsius lower than normal while cold wave conditions are when the minimum or night temperature is below 4.5 degrees Celsius, weatherman said. The met department has issued warning of cold day to severe cold day condition very likely at a few places in the state. Dense to very dense fog is very likely at isolated places, weatherman said.

LUCKNOW : The freezing weather across North India — with no respite in sight — has posed a challenge to the Yogi Adityanath government of protecting some four lakh stray cattle from the impact of severe cold.

Realising the gravity of the situation, the Uttar Pradesh Go-Seva Ayog (Cow Commission), on Monday issued a public appeal urging people to pitch in to help save cows from the biting cold by liberally donating their used cloths and other stuff to cow shelters through district magistrates. “We appeal to people to donate used blankets, gunny bags, tents, cloths and similar other stuff to respective DMs who will make the same available for use of cattle under the cow shelters running in their districts,” Go-Seva Ayog chairman, Shiv Nandan Singh said.

There are a little less than four lakh stray cattle living in over nearly 5,000 temporary shelters set up in different parts of the state. Most of these cow shelters are in open with no boundarywall around or roof above the cattle. Singh said the state government had only limited resources and a generous public participation was must to take care of comfortable stay and feeding of stray cattle being run all over the state.

“I also appeal to sugarcane farmers to donate cane to the cow shelters for the consumption of stray cattle,” he said.

“Sugarcane is nutritious and can keep cattle warm during winters,” he said. Singh said people should come forward to make contribution to a better upkeep of cattle not just now but throughout the year. “This is a good dead (punya) to serve destitute cows,” he stressed.

The long spell of severe cold waves has posed a challenge to the authorities to save stray cattle because they never anticipated such weather and did not make arrangements accordingly.

Sources said the government did not make any separate budgetary allocation for the winter arrangements at cow shelters and the local bodies were asked to make necessary arrangements from their own resources.

“No doubt this is a big challenge for us,” said animal husbandry director, UB Singh. “We are making all possible arrangements to protect cattle from cold and officials are regularly visiting shelters to monitor the situation,” he added.

He, however, claimed there was no report of cattle dying due to cold wave.

These are the first winters the stray cattle are facing since CM Yogi Adityanath ordered catching these animals and putting them in cow shelters in January last year after public outcry over crop damages and road accidents being caused by herd of stray cattle — the menace that resulted from the government’s ban on illegal slaughter houses and animal fairs.