Animals too don’t go hungry in this containment zone

Vadodara: Every morning a pick-up van carrying vegetables, fruits and milk reaches the entry gate of Covid-19 containment zone in Naswadi taluka of Chhota Udepur district so that the quarantined families can buy the essentials. Right behind this pick-up van, drives in a tractor loaded with grass and fodder which is left at the entry gate.
In every containment zone in the state, district administrations have been providing essential items, but Tadviwaas in Naswadi is probably the first such zone where food for animals is also being provided.
After unloading the fodder at the gate, an announcement of its arrival is made. The residents stand in a queue at a distance from each other to collect the fodder, just like they maintain discipline while buying vegetables and milk.
Tadviwaas was sealed on May 19 as a 28-year-old man who had come from Vadodara to meet his pregnant wife had tested positive. Following all protocols, 22 families in the locality were informed that they would get food and milk in a pick-up van every morning. But as the locality was sealed, the families were puzzled over taking their goats out for grazing as there was no open ground. Every family owns three to four goats. Before the area was sealed, one person from any of the families used to take around 80 goats out in nearby hillocks for grazing
On the first day, the goats were left hungry but by second morning they started bleating. “We started getting complaints from the owners of livestock, so we immediately got into action. The owners told us what kind of fodder is consumed by goats and we managed to source them,” said deputy collector Umesh Shah.
The local gram panchayat and Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (MGVCL) helped in getting the fodder. Later, the grass was also provided from the sites where work under MGNREGA scheme was going on. “Now, it has been four days since the truck-load of fodder too is provided daily along with food essentials,” Shah added.
“While fighting against coronavirus, we must think and take care of all living beings,” Shah told TOI.