Hundreds of bovines die in UP cow shelters

One may have seen Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath feeding jaggery to the cows at the Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur of which he is also the 'mahant' (religious head), but the thousands of stray cattle, kept at different cow shelters across the state are not that lucky.

Kept in pathetic conditions at mostly open shelters, hundreds of bovines have died allegedly for want of food and poor upkeep since the onset of monsoon in the state prompting the state government to order a probe.

According to the reports, around 300 bovines have died at different cow shelters in Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Raebareli, Sultanpur, Jaunpur and some other districts in the past few days.

On Thursday 35 cows were found dead at a cow shelter in Kandi village in Prayagraj district. The officials claimed that they were killed after being struck by lightning but the locals alleged that the shelter had turned into a bog trapping the bovines there and led to their death.

On Friday 30 bovines were found dead at two cow shelters in Ayodhya district. The local villagers said that the cattle were lodged in open shelters and there was very little food for them.

According to the sources Adityanath has ordered a probe into the deaths and the officials said that the guilty would be sternly punished.

UP government has earmarked Rs. 447 crore in the state budget for construction of cow shelters in all the districts across UP to deal with the stray cattle menace.

The chief minister has also asked the officials to explore the possibility of payment of Rs. 30 per day per cow to the person, who takes care of the animal.

Notwithstanding the efforts, thousands of bovines have died in the state in the past two years in different parts of the state.