First they drove most of the elephants out of Delhi. Then they banned the street food.

Now city authorities have pledged to rid India’s capital of the cows that nonchalantly wander though – and routinely block – its congested streets.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has presented the High Court with a plan to round up thousands of stray cows and herd them into a new dairy complex by August 2008.

It is the latest attempt to spruce up the capital for the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and transform it into a modern city reflecting India’s rising status in the world.

Cows are revered by India’s Hindu majority and their owners usually allow them to roam freely around cities, where they are often seen feeding on rubbish and sleeping in the middle of busy roads.

Delhi authorities say that they have become a menace in the capital, which has an estimated 2,300 illegal dairies accounting for about 28,000 cows.

The plan is to force the illegal dairy owners to buy plots in the new complex in Ghoga, on the outskirts of the city, and move their cows there within the next year.

“Basically, this is a plan by the Government to relocate all dairies in the city in one complex to control the stray cattle menace,” V. K. Singh, veterinary officer at the Delhi Corporation, said.

“Once the plots are allotted we’ll ensure the smooth transportation of cattle in hydraulic trucks. After they’re shifted we will enforce strict provisions and penalties on dairy operators who attempt to operate their business from any area other than the dairy colony.” City officials say that they have received 1,373 applications for plots in the new dairy complex but only 427 were genuine.

They say that they are determined to solve the problem once and for all, building on the courts’ recent crackdowns on zoning violations and illegal street food vendors.

They have long since made it almost impossible to bring elephants into the city by insisting that mahouts obtain multiple permits. Indian MPs have also called for city authorities to get rid of the Rhesus monkeys that mob the parliament building daily and once broke into the Ministry of Defence.

Hindu activists have opposed all the Government’s previous attempts to drive cows from the capital, where slaughtering them is illegal. Other critics say that the plan is doomed to fail in the same way as schemes introduced in the past few years.

City authorities began ear-tagging stray cows a few years ago but gave up after owners started cutting off the tags.

In 2005 they offered rewards of £23 for each captured stray cow but had to stop when owners started turning in their own cows and then reclaiming them from government shelters. Last year it started putting micro-chips down the throats of captured cattle. The idea was that city officials would be able to pass a portable scanner across a cow’s stomach and the chip would identify its number, breed and owner. The initiative has since been abandoned.

Sacred cows

— Mahatma Gandhi said: “The most important outward manifestation of Hinduism [is] the idea of cow protection”

— Lord Krishna, the Hindu deity, is known by the name Govinda “One who brings satisfaction to the cows”

— Cows had an indirect part in sparking the 1857 Indian Mutiny. When the 19th Native Infantry in Bengal were issued with new cartridges, a rumour spread that they were greased with the fat of cows. They believed that the British were trying to subvert their religion, so incensing an already vexed population

— During the British BSE crisis in the 1990s millions of apparently healthy older cattle were killed. Indians offered to take them in to save them from the abattoir

— The Welsh Assembly has been asked to postpone the slaughter of Shambo the bull after it tested positive for TB. Its owner, Skanda Vale Hindu Temple, campaigned on the internet for a reprieve

Sources: indiadivine.org , historynet.com , agencies

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