Pet project: Haryana plans hostels for cows

A proposal of setting up “cow hostels” in Haryana has been set in motion where residents in urban areas will be able to keep a cow as a pet.

The only difference between having a dog or a cat as a pet and a cow as a pet is that the cattle will not be reared in residences in cities. Instead, there will be dedicated cow hostels where an individual’s cow will be kept and reared.

Authorities opine that this concept will trigger a response from scores of cow lovers who were otherwise constrained for want of time and space to keep a cow as a pet. Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) rules forbid keeping a bovine in urban areas on its land.

Until now, cows including the stray ones, were taken into cow shelters where an NGO or a social organization would take care of running the operations of the cattle shelter. At cow pounds, cattle ownership was missing. The proposed cow hostels bring in this concept where cows will have their owners who will lodge their ‘cow pet’ at the cow hostel and bear its cost.

Cow owners will benefit from fresh cow milk that can be used for personal consumption or for sale in the market that may fetch them anywhere up to Rs 500 per day.

As per the plan sent to the government, people will be required to set up a cooperative society or a conglomerate to start such a facility. Civic bodies will provide a piece of land to people for the cow hostel.

The cost of setting up sheds, water facility, fodder storage, manpower for cattle will all be borne by the members of the society. The plan has been mooted and sent to the government by the Haryana Gau Sewa Aayog whose chairman Bhani Ram Mangla says the concept will also mitigate the problem of stray cattle to a large extent.

After the ban on beef and cow slaughter in Haryana, cattle pounds are running full capacity and the problem of stray cattle has compounded. Those in love with the cow may use cow hostels to even shelter a stray cow. Haryana has 437 cow shelters, still, an estimated 1.18 lakh are stray bovine on roads.