Dehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ inaugurated the Gau Sadan of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun at Selaqui on Monday. This facility will be used to shelter stray cattle of the city.
The stray cattle are a big issue in the city that not only hamper smooth flow of traffic but also end up sustaining injuries in accidents and even die due to consumption of plastic while foraging garbage dumps for food. The issue was also raised by many councillors in the last board meeting of the MCD. However, till now the MCD only had one Kanji House for sheltering stray cattle.
This Kanji House in Kedarpuram area has the capacity for holding about 70-75 cattle at a time whereas the population of stray cattle in the city is estimated to be in the thousands. Last year, the MCD officials had visited Mathura in Uttar Pradesh to study the model of the Gau Sadan there.
The facility in Dehradun was to be developed in two phases with a detailed project report of works amounting to Rs 77 lakh made for the first phase. Now with the opening of the MCD’s Gau Sadan on about 80 bigha land in Selaqui, the lot of stray cattle is expected to improve. The MCD will not impound stray cattle and keep them in the Kanji House for three days for the owner to show up and pay the fine to release the cattle. If no one comes forward then the cattle will be shifted to the Gau Sadan in Selaqui.
