GURUGRAM: The state animal husbandry department has called for a Census of dairy and household cows and has started to tag them as part of the Pashu Sanjivini programme which was launched in 2016.This is the first time that dairy and household cows will be tagged in the state. The move aims to prevent cow owners from leaving them on the streets when they grow old. Earlier, the state government had carried out drives to tag stray cows and cows in gaushalas as well as rehabilitate stray cows.Puneeta Gehlawat, deputy director, Intensive Cattle Development Project (ICDP), said, “We have started the mass tagging of dairy and hpousehold cows, which is happening for the first time in the state. Till now, there had been no Census of cows that farmers keep in their homes. We have already tagged 856 cows in the district. We have not started the counting yet. But I hope that we will be able to count 70% of dairy cows in the district by mid-March.”Gehlawat said the tagging would help in giving Aadhaar cards for cows. She said, “The central government has plans to give Aadhaar cards for cows. A 12-digit unique number will be given for cows all over the country. The Aadhaar card will have complete details of each cow, including name of the owner, location, breed and colour. It is for identification of these animals. If the farmer wants to avail any facility or benefit related to his cattle, he has to show the Aadhaar card. This data will also be available online. So, one can simply put in the tag number and locate the cow.”The Pashu Sanjivini programme aims to identify cattle and help farmers improve their cattle’s productivity. The central government will spend nearly Rs50 crore to tag cows. Gehlawat said, “The format for giving Aadhaar cards for cows has not come to us yet.”

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