The Himachal Pradesh government will run cow sanctuaries, being constructed in the state, on the lines of wildlife sanctuaries by dedicating an entire area for cows to help in their conservation, State Animal Husbandry Minister Virender Kanwar said on Tuesday.

Kanwar said the cow sanctuary will have a biogas plant of a suitable size to take care of its energy requirements for fuel, light and water pumping. Various government agencies will assist these Gau Sadans in establishing Biogas plants and to augment its resources, the sanctuary will prepare bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides which can be sold to local farmers at very concessional rates.

Thus, there would not be any problem of marketing for the products of Gausadans, he added.

He stated that the HP Gauseva Aayog will provide funds for running of the Gau Sadan to the extent approved under providing assistance for running of as Rs 500 per cattle per month scheme operational at present.

Additional running costs will be managed by the concerned NGO from its own resources as being done by them now.

“Himachal will set up cow sanctuaries/Gau Sadan in 11 districts of the state except Lahaul Spiti district to provide shelter to stray cattle in natural environment and also provide facilities for grazing as per the availability of land resources.

Presently cow sanctuaries are functioning at Kotla Barog (Sirmour), Thana Kalan Khas (Una), Handa Kundi (Solan), Khairi (Hamirpur) and Luthan in Kangra district.

Total five numbers of cow shed Rs 26 lakh with steel structure and pre-painted sheet roofing has been constructed with around Rs 1.30 crore to admit additional 500 cows in the expanded cow sanctuary. However, the sanctuary has around 200 cows presently,” he said.

He further stated that the Animal Husbandry department is already running a Gau Sadan at Sunni through an NGO Shri Hari Gau Sadan housing 200 animals and its capacity has been expanded to provide shelter to another 500 stray animals by construction of additional sheds /infrastructural facilities to serve the abandoned and stray animals.

The sanctuary will be developed into a breeding centre of good local indigenous breeds like Pahadi Gauri, Gir, Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Thar Parkar, etc so as to develop good breed bulls meant for service of the area.

“The cows which will be kept at the sanctuary would primarily be the animals which are abandoned by their owners after they stop producing milk and become stray animals. Animals rescued from cattle smugglers will also find a place in the facility.

The sanctuary could gradually be developed as a tourist destination by turning it into the best national level cow sanctuary.

Facilities in the sanctuary will include hospitals and Sewan grass as fodder for the animals. This particular type of grass is considered to be among the best quality fodder for cows,” he added.