Bovine intervention hurts Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation coffers

AHMEDABAD: The civic body’s moo-ve to lodge police complaints and levying fines on cattle owners for letting their animals stray on roads is burning a hole in its pockets.

While Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation collected Rs 94.32 lakh in fine from owners of stray cattle, it paid Rs 2.19 crore to animal shelters for the upkeep of 127 unclaimed stray cattle since last April.
“Most of the animals caught by the cattle nuisance and control department have been abandoned by their owners. They become AMC’s liability and are kept in the two AMC-run animal pounds. However, once these facilities are full, the animals have to be transferred to shelters located outside the city. AMC makes one-time payment as lifetime maintenance to agencies that relocate these animals,” a senior AMC official said.
The official said that increase in maintenance amount has also impacted coffers.
In November, the civic body increased the one-time payment to animal shelters from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,000 per animal.
“The 60% increase has turned into a burden for the civic body. Between April and November, the department paid Rs 1.09 crore for the upkeep of 4,372 stray animals.
“From December 1 to February 10, we paid Rs 1.1 crore for the upkeep of 2,755 unclaimed animals,” the official said.
The official said that the civic body can collect fines only from those owners who come to reclaim their animals.
“In April-February period, civic body collected Rs 94.32 lakh,” the official said. He said that in the same period, AMC caught 13,022 stray cattle of which only 1,676 stray animals were released when their owners came to reclaim them.
“The other issue is repeated offenders. We usually tag stray animals with RFID when we catch them. They are freed when the cattle owners come to reclaim their animals by paying Rs 3,000 in fine and Rs 500 per day as animal maintenance. However, we keep catching the same animal over and over,” the official said.