Kathmandu : The Supreme Court has issued a mandamus order directing the government to take immediate action against those involved in abandoning domestic animals such as cows, oxen and calves after they become old or useless.
A joint bench of justices Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Puroshattam Bhandari issued the order in response to a writ petition lodged by advocate Padam Bahadur Shrestha. The writ petition has made Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, and the Department of Livestock Services as defendants.
In his writ, advocate Shrestha said that around 2,500 cows, oxen and their calves have been kept in a forest of Chure in Kalali by installing fence wires and the animals are dying every day after being attacked by wild animals, due to lack of shelter, proper food and unknown diseases. As a result, people living around the forest area facing problems due to the foul smell of dead animals, and has also been adversely affecting the environment, he added.
The Supreme Court also stated in its order that legal action will be taken action against the farmers and officials of the concerned authority, among others, if the cows, oxen and their calves are found dead under mysterious circumstances or slaughtered because of their negligence.
The government has also been told to coordinate with local and provincial governments to collect the data of cattle kept by the farmers, tag all the domesticated animals, manage the data on the cattle across the country through computerized system, encourage farmers to insure their animals, establish protection and care center in each municipality or rural municipality, manage land for grazing in a scientific way by conserving public land in each local level, plant fodder trees in community forests, manage an easy way for the farmers to find fodder during autumn season, motivate and help farmers to take care of old animals and organize a national-level special program to conserve the genetic diversity of cows and other animals which are found only in Nepal.
