Impossible to feed all cattle: Govt to Madras HC

Chennai: The animal husbandry department of Tamil Nadu has informed Madras high court that it is impossible to provide fodder to the entire 95.95 lakh cattle population in the state.

A petition was filed by advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam urging the authorities to take necessary relief measures on war footing to provide sufficient fodder and water at free of cost and to open goshalas in drought hit areas.

The department, in the report, said a close monitoring of the health of livestock has been undertaken by the department of animal husbandry and veterinary services by conducting cattle health camps so as to prevent loss of livestock and ensure that they remain healthy during the drought period. Adequate provisions for drinking water for livestock are also being made.

A four-pronged approach has been adopted that will make availability of green and dry fodder at the village level. Distribution of mineral mixture as well as cattle feed has been done.

In 2016-17, the government allocated Rs 25 crore for augmenting fodder production in 12,000 acres of land under irrigated conditions and 50,000 acres under rainfed conditions. The government on January 10, 2017 sanctioned an amount of Rs 78 crore.

Dry fodder depots were established in veterinary institutions for an outlay of Rs 55.71 crore, Rs 12.09 crore for providing supplementing mineral mixture and Rs 7.20 crore for providing concentrate feed to milch cattle.

The department hoped that the measures would prevent panic sales of livestock, production related stress and avoiding health risk of the cattle.

The cattle would come back to peak production without loss of time once normal feeding restored. Consequent to the reports of cattle deaths in Salem and Dharmapuri districts, the department directed the joint directors to open additional fodder depots in areas where fodder shortage was acute.