Written by YUKTA AHUJA Under the Smart Cities Mission, 60,634 cattle — which make up 90 per cent of the estimated cattle population of 67,000 in Ahmedabad city — have been tagged with Radio Frequency Identification Data (RFID) devices till June. According to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) data, 60,634 tags have been injected to cattle belonging to 9,668 cattle owners till June. The RFID tags help find the location of the cattle, their age and breed as well as details of their owners. This helps the AMC ensure that the cattle are not used in illegal operations, a civic official said. The cattle nuisance control department (CNCD) of the AMC had conducted a cattle census in 2019, finding 67,000 of them living in the city. With 60,634 cattle tagged, 90 per cent of the cattle and their owners are now under AMC's watch. In 2017, the Gujarat High Court had also ruled that cattle should be tagged in Ahmedabad. However, officials said the number of cattle has increased in the city. An official from CNCD said, “Sometimes it is difficult to tag cows and buffaloes as the owners refuse. They say it will harm the cattle's reproduction, milk yield and cause sickness. But lost cattle are found easily with the help of these tags.” As per AMC data between August 2018 and June 30, 2023, most of the registered cattle can be found at Danapith, which falls under the jurisdiction of AMC's head office – there are 6,564 owners with 37,401 registered cattle. The least number could be found in the new west zone of the city – with 23 owners having 125 cattle. According to CNCD, north, south and west zones are more populated with registered cattle - 4,531, 4,191 and 4,396, respectively. East zone has 3,412 and central zone 2,424 cattle. (Yukta is an intern with The Indian Express)
