The kine house at Kharavela Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 15: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to go for a bigger kine house because the only one at Kharavela Nagar is insufficient to house the large number of stray cattle.

Herds of cattle are seen on Khandagiri-Pokhariput, Bhimatangi-Lingaraj temple, Sundarpada-Bhimatangi and Forest Park-Bhimatangi roads. They are found at Siripur and Delta Square and also on several stretches of the NH-5 and NH-203 that pass through the city.

“It is becoming dangerous because there is always a large number of cows on the way down from the Bhimatangi-Poonama Gate railway flyover near Palaspalli and they all sit on the road at night. Herds of cattle also roam about in other parts of the city, increasing the possibility of accidents especially at night,” said Ganesh Parida of Pokhariput.

Mrutyunjay Tripathy, a resident of Soubhagya Nagar, Phase-II, said there should be multiple kine houses at different locations or a bigger facility at a place outside the city.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said the only vehicle used for catching cattle was out of order for a long time, leaving its cattle-catching squad dysfunctional. But now the vehicle has been repaired and the workers are on the job again.

The only kine house in the city is located at Kharavela Nagar and it can handle nearly 200 animals. But since it is very old and the water and food supply for the cattle is limited, the animals there are having a difficult time.

“In the kine house at Kharavela Nagar, there is scope for the supply of only water and straw. At times, charitable trusts and individuals do contribute cattle food for the animals. Recently, we got an offer from a non-resident Odia from the UK, who is constructing a modern kine house to house bulls at Pipili in Puri district. At present, there is no facility to keep bulls at our Kharavela Nagar kine house,” the mayor said.

“We are trying to construct a two-acre modern kine house on the city outskirts, where the cattle will be kept in a one-acre land and fodder will be cultivated for the animals in the remaining plot. We have already applied to the general administration department for the land and are likely to get it somewhere near the Chandaka limits,” Jena added.

Without any facility to house bulls, the BMC cow-catchers are now releasing the caught bulls at a place along the NH-5 between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

Likewise, employees of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) are also catching bulls from Cuttack and releasing them somewhere at a nearby locality. “We came to know that the bulls of both the corporations are creating a lot of problems in the fringe zone. They are destroying crops and warring over territories. The bulls should have a different and spacious kine facility,” said a BMC official.