After cows, MP to give unique IDs to 2.77 crore cattle in state

BHOPAL: While the apex court is still debating on the privacy issue about making Aadhaar mandatory, the Madhya Pradesh government has gone a step forward and has decided to have unique IDs for it 2.77 crore cattle population. It comes after the decision of tagging or making unique IDs of 90 lakh breedable cattle population was undertaken in the state in September last. The project was aided by the Union government.
Six lakh breed-able cattle population has been tagged so far since then.
The decision to have unique IDs for all cattle has come after public representatives from the Bundelkhand region of the state gunned for it.
They said they receive several complaints of cattle damaging standing crops and when villagers seek compensation, the owner of the stray cattle discard them. Now, with unique IDs, the owners cannot disown the cattle. The cattle can be tracked on the click of a mouse and its details of ownership can also be ascertained. In case of stray animals damaging crops, it would be easy to shift them away.
Cattle spoiling the fields are a major problem in Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand regions of Madhya Pradesh.
Priyakant Pathak, additional deputy director of animal husbandry directorate, said 90 lakh cattle would be tagged with assistance from Centre, while the cost of tagging remaining 1.87 crore cattle would be met by the state government. Tagging costs Rs 10 per cattle, he added.

Cows in Madhya Pradesh are a privileged lot — they are first to get Aadhaar cards… tags to be precise. Around six lakh cattle have been tagged in state so far. Official said the aim is to finish the tagging of entire 2.77 crore cattle of state within a year. Tagged in the ear, the yellow Aadhar chip have the cattle’s date of birth, address, milk yield, reproduction and health details. And is available at the click of a mouse. Like Aadhaar, the UID number given to a cattle will not be repeated anywhere in the country, so that even if it is transported from one place to another, its record will remain intact and can be updated from time to time.
Dedicated software has been developed to host details of cattle, which can be accessed from anywhere in the country. Aadhaar cards of cattle will help in breed improvement, health monitoring and production, said officials. Also, a buyer can check the cattle’s history and it will help track missing cattle. Besides, the animals straying from other states with contagious disease can be tracked.
The cattle Aadhaar will also help keep a check on slaughter and illegal transportation,” said an official. The National Dairy Development Board in Gujarat is the nodal agency for Aadhaar tagging of cattle in the country. The state government has trained over 3,600 workers for the task. Armed with ‘tablets’, they will go to every village, block, tehsil and district to locate cows and punch unique identification number on their ears, after filling a form comprising complete details of the bovine and uploading it on the software.