Civic body plans to seize cattle roaming streets

WITH the stray cattle menace increasing in Tiruchy, the corporation announced that a fine would be imposed on those allowing the animals to roam free in the city. Yet, this has not proved to be a deter-rent and now the civic body is planning to seize the cattle. "It is very difficult to man-age the situation. The authorities have to take action against those releasing the animals for grazing," said Sundara Moor thy, a two-wheeler rider. The earlier in-action of the administration led to criticism from various quarters and the corporation then announced the 25,000 fine on owners of stray cattle. However, identifying the owners is a major challenge. "We will seize the animals and keep them in gaushalas (cow sheds). When the owners approach us, we will impose the fine on them," said Corporation Commissioner N Ravichandran. It is under review how the civic body would identify repeat offenders.

Corporation officials con-firmed currently there no plans to tag the seized animals. 'An ear tag on the seized animals would help us determine if owners are again releasing them on city roads, but we are not considering this option for the time being. However, we will keep a record of owners before re-leasing the seized cattle, which should work in the long run," said officials. City residents regard this as a gimmick by the administration. "We are regarded as the most liveable city. But we have the cattle menace and they are eating plants meant for beautification. The corporation had taken similar measures earlier, but all of them failed. Many owners let cattle run free once they be-come old. The administration has to keep a register of those owning cattle to ensure that they are not releasing them in the city Simply announcing a fine will not stop the menace," said Venkadachalapathi Iyer, a city resident and retired civil servant. Yet, sources said senior of-ficials were unaware of how many strayc attle are actually roaming in the city
Source: epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/341