Temple trusts to help Dharamsala MC maintain cow shelter

The Dharamsala Municipal Corporation (MC) would seek help of temple trusts in Kangra district to maintain a gausadan (cow shelter) in the area. Dharamsala MC Commissioner Zaffar Iqbal visited the cowshed being run in the Sakoh area yesterday.

There had been complaints from animal activists that the cow shelter being run in Dharamsala was not well equipped and stray cows kept there were being subjected to cruelty. While talking to The Tribune, Iqbal said after inspecting the gausadan, he has issued immediate orders for fencing off the area, where injured stray cows were being brought for treatment, with wire mesh.

“I had received reports that injured animals being brought to the cow shelter were being haunted by the birds. Raising the wire mesh would solve the problem,” he added.

He said at present 98 stray cows have been housed in the gausadan of Dharamsala, but the MC was facing budget problems in maintaining it. “I have taken up the matter with the Kangra Deputy Commissioner and requested him to provide funds for maintaining the cow shelter from the temple trusts of Mata Chamunda Devi, Brajeshwari Devi and Jawalamukhi Devi. We shall also be holding a meeting soon to raise funds from public to manage to the cow shelter,” added Iqbal.

Dharamsala is faced with an increasing problem of stray cattle. The menace has been increasing in the region as people leave their cattle on roads after they stop yielding milk.

Though rules are in place to impose fine on people, who leave their stray cattle on roads, they are hardly being invoked against violators by the implementing agencies that include the MC and the Animal Husbandry Department.

Though the government has imposed cow cess on liquor being sold in Himachal Pradesh, the funds are not reaching the cow sanctuaries or shelters that are formed to tackle the stray cattle menace in the state.