Most of us might have witnessed the dreadful sight of dead animals on highways and intercity roads. As much as the sight of these stray animals especially dogs, cats and cows being crushed to death make us sick to our stomach, the least we do is divert our vehicles and drive pass their dead bodies. But this isn’t what the residents of Maur Mandi in Punjab wanted to do. That’s why they came up with a concrete plan to save the stray cattle from dying a painful death on the roads.
Heartbroken with the sight of dead animals on the streets of Maur and having received no help from the government, the residents of the town in Punjab’s Bathinda district decided to pick stray cattle from the streets and housed them in the Pashu Mandi area of the town.
As reported by TIE, the 28-acre land is used by the government on the 20th of every month for the sale of cattle. Since apart from these 12 days, the huge area remains unused the rest of the year, the Maur residents decided to use it as a ‘Gaushala’ to keep strays off the roads.
“As this land was lying unattended and there was no response from the state government regarding stray animals, we decided to keep stray cattle in this mandi. Over 150 farmers of Maur Kalan joined hands with us in collecting these animals from highways, link roads and we started keeping them inside the mandi,” said the 56-year-old member of the gaushala committee, Sushil Kumar.
Kumar further added that within 19 months of picking strays from the roads and housing them in the mandi area, they are now taking care of 2,200 stray cattle in 12 sheds of the Pashu Mandi.
Since manning the cattle and transporting them to the mandi involves a lot of expense (nearly Rs 6-7 lakh a month), the members of the gaushala committee and voluntary donors contribute a certain amount towards the lookout of the stray cattle. Volunteers also provide their services to take care of animals including doctors and veterinarians. Farmers in the vicinity also help with providing free of cost fodder. Langar from a nearby Gurdwara is also sent in for the gaushala workers every afternoon.
A resident of the town said:
“For the past one and a half years, we have not seen any accident on Maur’s roads due to stray cattle. This is a change which the town has seen and all of us are relieved.”
He further adds that the number of abandoned cattle has gone down. “But whenever cattle are abandoned, they are gradually picked and brought to the gaushala by members of NGO Sahara Club.” He adds.
Responding to the pleas of the volunteers to find a permanent home for the strays, State Rural Development Minister Tripat Rajinder Bajwa said, “I am aware of the issue. I appreciate that stray animals are being taken care of, but at the same time, the controversy of fund collection needs to be looked into. They should not have collected funds on their own on Pashu Mandi day. We were busy with Gurpurab celebrations and now we will look into this project and the issue will be resolved soon.”
Not only are the volunteers saving these cattle from dying on the streets, but they are also providing them with a better living environment, food and proper medical services. Isn’t this what community is all about?