Gandhidham municipality struggles to dispose of carcasses of LSD-affected cattle

“In routine days, the municipality would get an average five such calls and the private contractor hired by the municipality would dispose of the carcasses by transporting them in a multi-utility vehicle. But as the number of cattle deaths shot up to 25 per day, the private contractor met us and expressed his inability to dispose of so many carcasses. Therefore, we had to divert three tractor-trailers of our sanitation department and staff of that department for the task,” Darshansinh Chavda, chief officer (CO) of Gandhidham municipality said.

On July 26, when residents of Ganeshnagar near the Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ) protested against disposal of carcasses near their locality and forced a tractor-trailer loaded with bovine carcasses to return to the municipality headquarters and forced the staff to keep it parked there for four hours.

Eventually, Gandhidham municipality president Ishita Tolani and representatives of Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) requested Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) to allot a new plot for disposal of cattle carcasses by way of burying them deep under soil.

After surveying various plots, DPA chairman Sanjay Mehta handed over a plot of land near the sewage treatment plant (STP) of Welspun for disposal of carcasses. The civic body has been disposing of carcasses on this plot since July 27.

“We have pressed an excavator into service on this plot for digging pits eight-feet deep, six-feet wide and six-feet long. These pits are large enough to bury 50 carcasses in each one of them. Our teams are working in two shifts to dispose of the increased number of carcasses,” the CO further said adding Ahir Salot, a firm of Neelkanth Group, is helping them with salt so that stench doesn’t emanate from these pits.

Chavda said that as per official figures, Gandhidham town’s cattle population is 4,281.

Meanwhile, with the help of the state government, private firms like Malar Shipping Private Limited and NGOs Bharat Vikas Parishad, Agarwal Samaj, Samast Brahm Samaj of Gandhidham Taluka, Seva Sadhana, Sanatan Hindu Samaj and Kamdhenu Gauseva Trust etc, Gandhidham municipality has opened an LSD isolation centre for stray cattle infected by the viral disease.

“We are taking care of around 300 cows and cattle abandoned by their owners. A few cattle heads have been discharged from the facility while the number of those being brought the facility is much higher,” Ashish Joshi, president of Samast Brahm Samaj of Gandhidham taluka said.

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The isolation centre has been set up on portion of Ramleela Maidan.

Chavda said the number of cattle casualties has been showing a declining trend over the fast few days. “While that is a relief, we now have enough land to dispose of carcasses,” he said.