'Aadhaar' finally bells the cows too

Rasheed Kidwai, TT, Mar 25, 2018, Bhopal: Indian citizens can no longer say they are the only ones who possess a 12-digit identity number unique to each. Cows in Madhya Pradesh have them too.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has set itself an ambitious target to tag the state's cattle population - estimated to be over three crore - with unique identities similar to Aadhaar numbers.

Over 2.5 lakh bovines have already been tagged since the project kicked off towards the fag end of last year.

"In the first phase, 40 lakh tags have been distributed and the ears of 2.5 lakh animals tagged," said Gulab Singh Davar, joint director in the state animal husbandry department. Over 6,000 employees have been assigned the task.

Davar said the yellow tag bears the identity number. It weighs about 8gm and carries the name of the owner and the cattle's breed, age and colour. The cattle UIDs are being linked to the Aadhaar numbers of the animals' owners.

Davar said the objective of the scheme was to protect the cattle, check illegal sale and smuggling, and ascertain if the owners were abandoning the animals. Another goal is to "keep an eye on the productivity of the animals, which can be enhanced with improvement in its breed".

"This will also increase the income of the cattle owners," Davar told PTI.

H.B.S. Bhadoria, managing director of the state livestock corporation, said the UID had been created after obtaining information about the animals in a prescribed form and uploading it through a software application.

The BJP-ruled state has the highest cattle population in the country. The state livestock board says there's one cow for every three people in the state.