Gujarat governor on Thursday gave his nod to the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2017, that has provision for a life-term for any person found guilty of cow slaughter or having direct involvement with the cow slaughter.

The amendment to this effect was brought in by Gujarat government on the last day of budget session that end on March 31. With the governor’s nod, Gujarat becomes the first state in the country to have a strict law against cow slaughter.

The new law has provisions for financial penalty of anywhere between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for such a crime. Anyone found illegally keeping or transporting a cow too can be imprisoned up to 10 years in jail and a fine of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The offence is also non-bailable now.

The new Act include seizure of the vehicles used for transportation of animals for slaughter.

The state government has also put curbs on transportation of cows in the state. Even the legal and licensed movement of the cattle would not be allowed between 7.00 pm in the evening to 5.00 am in the morning. This is being done to further restrict any illegal movement of cattle.

Meanwhile, the state government on Thursday also announced an assistance of Rs 25 per cattle living in cattle camps run by various organizations in the scarcity-hit areas. The state has declared 18 villages in Surendranagar and Rajkot district to be scarcity-hit so far this year.