SRS of ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute & National Academy of Dairy Science (India)

Organized a Webinar On

Stray Cattle: Strategies and Challenges Stray Cattle has emerged as an important issue in view of the damage to the environment, transport system and general living of people besides public health concerns. The unproductive females and males are considered as a burden to the farmers; the ban on cattle slaughter and the rising mechanization has made the unproductive bovine an unwanted farm animal, thus, these animals become un-owned, becomes no man’s property and roam around freely causing serious problems to the community. As per the 20th livestock census, 5.02 million such stray cattle are present in the country. Keeping in view the seriousness of the issue, Southern Regional Station of ICAR-NDRI in association with the National Academy of Dairy Sciences (India) organized a National Webinar on “Stray Cattle: Strategies and Challenges”. The issue was flagged off by Dr. A. K. Srivastava, Member, Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board, New Delhi & President of NADS(I). He emphasized the problems associated with stray cattle, both on human beings as well as on animal welfare, at country level and felt an ardent need for a proper policy for management of the stray cattle. He said that if rearing of these animals are made remunerative, by utilizing these cattle for “dry dairying”, then the problem of stray cattle will substantially be reduced. He put forth several points to ponder during the webinar. Dr Vallabhbhai Kathiria, the Chairman of Rastriya Kamdhenu Aayog, in his keynote address, stressed the importance of utilizing the so-called stray cattle as a resource for livelihood improvement of farmers by implementing co-operative model for utilization of byproducts from cattle. He drew the attention of the webinar attendees to brainstorm the issue among policy makers, scientists and stakeholders to develop an effective and implementable policy to reduce the stray cattle population. Dr. B.N. Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Sciences), ICAR reiterated that a comprehensive policy paper need to be formulated on this aspect and submitted to the Government for implementation. Dr. M.S. Chauhan, Director, NDRI presented the usefulness of Ovum Pick-up and IVF technology for effective utilization of stray cows as surrogate mothers. The presentations and lectures were followed by the comments and expert opinion of a galaxy of scientists including Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor, GADVASU; Dr. Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Govt. of India; Dr. A. K. Gahlot, Former Vice Chancellor, RAJUVAS; Dr. Rameshwar Singh, Vice Chancellor, Bihar Animal Sciences University; Dr. M.P. Yadav, Former Director ICAR-IVRI; Maj Gen Dr Shri Kant, Former Vice-Chancellor, LUVAS; Dr. Thangaraju, Former Vice-Chancellor, TANUVAS; Dr. Srinivas Gowda, Former Vice-Chancellor, KVAFSU; Dr. Prabhakar Rao, Former Vice-Chancellor, SVVU; Dr. B.K. Joshi, Former Director, ICAR-NBAGR; Dr. B.P. Mishra, Director, ICAR-IVRI; Dr. V.K. Saxena, ADG; Dr. Ashok Kumar, ADG; Dr. Abhijit Mitra, Director, ICAR-NRCM; Dr. P.K. Singh, Principal Scientist, NBAGR; Dr. D.K. Sadana, Former Principal Scientist; Dr. Umesh Singh, Principal Scientist, CIRC and others. Dr. A.N. Yellappa Reddy, IFS (Retd), Former Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka highlighted that we have degraded our pasture lands due to lack of inputs and management and thousands of acres of agricultural

fallow land has been invaded by exotic alien species of weeds such as lantana, parthenium etc which suppress and eliminate grass and valuable herbs. Justice (Dr) Prakash, Adjunct Professor, National Law School, Bengaluru explained about the various provisions in the constitution on the issue. Dr. K.P. Ramesha, Head, SRS of ICAR-NDRI and the convener of the webinar informed the attendees that several studies showed that the dry dairying ventures can prove rearing of the so called ‘useless stray cattle’ as economically viable. He stated that the stray cattle can be converted into resource by providing a sustenance diet for producing fuel, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides and other value-added by-products. All the attendees provided their comments on the issue and applauded that the webinar provided a suitable platform for the researchers, planners and policy makers to brainstorm on the issue of stray cattle and to come out with suitable strategies and policy measures. In the concluding remarks, Dr. A. K. Srivastava informed the house that a series of such meetings will be conducted on this issue in near future and scientists, planners, policy makers, successful entrepreneurs and stakeholders will be consulted to arrive at an implementable policy paper, which will be submitted to the Government of India to tackle the issue of stray cattle. More than 180 persons across the country attended the webinar. The webinar ended with vote of thanks by Dr. S. Jayakumar.