In a rare gesture to animal welfare, the Delhi government has decided to open “PG hostels” for cows, build a Gaushala-cum-old age home and tag all pets and cattle with microchips to monitor their health and identify owners.
The hostels would be opened for cows whose owners do not have space to keep them while Gaushala-cum-old age home to be set up where the elderly would live in the company of cows.
It will also tag all pets and cattle in the city with microchips to monitor their health and identify owners, besides establishing 272 animal hospitals, one in each ward, according to media report on Thursday.
Unveiling government’s animal health and welfare policy 2018, Development Minister Gopal Rai said the animal husbandry department was being renamed Animal Health and Welfare Department to give it a welfare orientation.
The government also plans to open 11 mortuaries with post mortem facilities, incinerators for disposal of animal carcasses and build more cowsheds locally know as “Gaushalas”.
It has identified a site in Ghummanhera village, South West Delhi, for a “modern, state-of-the-art” Gaushala-cum-old age home for the elderly who want to serve cows, a concept that has made with some success in Gujarat, reports BSS.
The policy also calls for birth control programme for monkeys and stray dogs, in view of monkey menace reported from many parts of the city. New animal birth control centre to be set up to this end.
The government is planning to open around 33 “Gaushalas” across the city to give shelter to deserted cows and restructuring the existing five “Gaushalas” of Delhi with state-of-the art infrastructure and modern design.
There are a total of 76 animal hospitals and clinics in Delhi but most of them are short of equipment and technologically crippled. It also plans to establish 24×7 emergency health services for the animals.
