BMC starts ear tagging of livestock to stop cattle menace on roads

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday launched a programme for ear tagging of cattle at Behera Sahi, near Kalinga Stadium.

The programme would jointly be done by BMC and Fisheries and Animal Resources Development (FARD) Department. Awareness vehicles were also launched on this occasion.

BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said, “The Odisha Men’s World Cup Hockey-2018 would definitely bring a tourism focus to the city and many foreign players, officials and dignitaries would be visiting our city. In order to stop the stray cattle menace and also making the city roads safe, we have launched the tagging of ear campaign for the cattle across the city.”

The BMC Mayor also added that by doing the tagging of cattle their owners could also identify their animals during any natural calamity, theft and illegal transportation of the animals through the traders.

Later, the Mayor also flagged off vehicles with public announcement systems to create mass awareness of ear tagging of cattle in the city.

BMC Deputy Commissioner Subhranshu Mishra said, “Cattle under the BMC limits are to be tagged positively as per the decision of the civic body. The tagging is done free and in the first phase, 2,000 cattle would be covered under it. People can take their cattle to the nearest veterinary clinic and get them tagged.”

Apart from the Mayor, Chairman BMC Standing Committee on Public Health Biranchi Narayan Mahasupakar, local councillor of Ward No. 37 Nabakishore Behera and councillor of Ward No. 38 Nikhil Balabantray were present.

Sub-Divisional Veterinary Officer (SDVO) Dr Harekrushna Sahoo and Bhubaneswar Block Veterinary expert Dr Chandrasekhar Rath were also present.

It can be mentioned here that after tagging if a cattle is found roaming here and there and on the city roads and is caught by the cattle catching squad of BMC, then the owner has to pay Rs 1,000 for the release of the animal.

In the case of untagged cattle, the owner has to pay Rs 1,500 as a fine. There would also be additional daily fine on the cattle.

SDVO Dr. Sahoo said, “As we are now getting so much attention as a Smart City in the making and the Odisha Men’s World Cup Hockey-2018 is all set to take the city as a major sports arena across the world, the tagging would immensely help the civic body as the tagged cattle would be linked to the database of their owners.”

The tagging is done by attaching a soft plastic number given by BMC to the cattle. As the ear is made of cartilage the piercing of the needle with the numbered tag would not be painful for the animal.