By IANS
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh government has ordered that a census of cattle be carried out across the state later this week to ensure there is no major decline in the number of cattle in the state, officials said Monday.
The government is hoping that the census will help prevent old and abandoned cattle from being left astray or shipped outside the state boundaries to neighbouring Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh where they often end up in slaughterhouses.
“Starting Sep 15, a census of all cattle will start across the state to determine their numbers. The counting is done every ten years. This time it is being done after five years and we have already received Rs.20 million from the centre to carry out the operation,” said state Animal Husbandry Minister Harsh Mahajan.
“According to our records, five years ago, there were 2.19 million cows, 700,000 buffalos, 1.1 million goats and 900,000 sheep, besides 750,000 poultry in the state,” said Mahajan.
The state government recently made it compulsory for all households to register cattle with their village panchayats and mark them with a tag so that they can be identified when they go astray or are abandoned or transported outside the state.