VMC won’t release cattle caught without radio tags

Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) will not be releasing cattle impounded without Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags in the city. The move was taken up after a door-to-door campaign was conducted to administer the tags on bovines in the city.
The civic body had started the drive in November last year to inject the tags into bovines owned by persons residing in the city. The move was taken up to get an estimate of bovines in the city and to ensure that these animals are not left on the streets of the city.
VMC officials said that after administering the tags at its own cattle pounds for quite some time now, the decision to install these on door-to-door was taken, a drive that it completed on May 18.
Officials said that during the door-to-door drive, around 3,600 bovines were administered with RFID tags. Surveys done by VMC officials at the ward level revealed that there were around 5,000 bovines within the city limits.
With many cattle owners not cooperating in the drive, the VMC has now decided that it will not be releasing cattle that does not wear the radio tag. “We have decided that after June 1, if such cattle are caught on streets in the city, we will continue to hold them,” said an official.
The civic body will also continue to administer the tags on newly procured animals or those that are shifted to the city from elsewhere. “If there is no tag, there are reasons to believe that the animal is stray and nobody owns it,” said the official.