The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government is set to deliver on its poll promise of resoling the stray cattle menace by implementing a plan, reported The Indian Express. As part of the plan, the state government will build shelters within the next 100 days which can accommodate up to 50,000 stray cattle, going up to 1 lakh in six months.

The plan also includes construction of cow sanctuaries across the states to house cattle in a natural habitat, around 50 mega cow shelters and also raising the capacity of the existing ones. 

Campaigning for the party during the UP Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he had found a solution to the issue of ‘chutta jaanvar (stray cattle)’ and added that the plan would be rolled out after March 10 results, if the BJP was voted back to power in Uttar Pradesh.

The government is also set to establish biogas plants where it aims at using cow dung to make CNG, working towards a public private partnership. The cow dung for this will be purchased from farmers. 

Modi had promised farmers a system where cows that have stopped giving milk (which are abandoned by farmers) would yield income through gobar, and said this would be so lucrative that people would go out of their way to adopt stray cattle.

The state government will also identify 65,000 hectares of land kept for grazing in revenue records which will be dedicated to making fodder. For cow sanctuaries, the government has asked district magistrates to identify available forest areas with a provision for water bodies under their jurisdictions.

According to a 2019 survey, the number of stray cattle in the state stood at 11.84 lakh. The state government claims to have provided shelter to over 9 lakh stray cattle in the last five years. However, most of these shelters are temporary. 

In 2018-19, the government first announced mega cow shelters – starting with 75 and going up to 213 – with the estimated expenditure of about Rs 1.20 crore each. Sources said work on over 50 such shelters is already underway and funds are likely to be increased.