Ahmedabad: The effect of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s ‘Cattle Nuisance Control Policy’ is evident. In the past 10 months, only 1,049 complaints about stray cattle were registered in Ahmedabad city, compared to 3,500 to 4,000 complaints per month before the policy was enforced.
In most areas of the city, such as Vadaj, Odhav, Hebatpur and parts of Naroda, stray cattle are no longer seen on the roads. The corporation’s control room reports only two to three images of stray cattle daily from CCTV footage. Previously, 250 to 300 daily complaints were registered based on CCTV images.
Since the new policy was implemented, 16,228 stray animals were captured in 18 months, and 12,847 were sent to shelters. If animal owners release their cattle on the roads even after obtaining a licence, their licences are being revoked.
Between April 2024 and Jan 15, 2025, a total of 4,768 stray cattle were captured in Ahmedabad city, of which only 32 were released. In the last 10 months, 6,263 stray cattle were sent to shelters. A penalty of Rs 2.36 lakh was collected from animal owners. Additionally, a donation of Rs 3 lakh was received for the animals kept in the corporation’s cattle pond. A total of 1,049 complaints about stray cattle were received in the past 10 months. Only one animal licence was issued to an owner in the past 10 months.
“Cattle nuisance has practically disappeared from the city roads in the western parts. This has led to a drastic reduction in the accidents involving cattle in our area,” said Trupti Sheth, a resident of Satellite.
Locals said that absence of cows on the city roads however has led to a peculiar problem where families who offer chapatis to cows daily are now forced to go to local colonies where cows are kept hidden from the public eye. “In some colonies which still have cows, they have installed a feeder where people deposit rotis or rice balls which are later fed to the cows at meal time. On religiously significant days, instead of offering grass to the cows, people donate money for grass to gaushalas,” said Lalita Patel, a resident of Shyamal crossroads.
Sources from AMC stated that after the state govt approved the policy in Aug 2023, the corporation started implementing the new policy from Sep 1, 2023. It mandated the registration of animals and tagging of all animals. The capture of stray animals was intensified, resulting in 16,228 stray cattle being captured in 18 months and 235 police complaints being filed. 12,847 animals were sent to out-of-town shelters, and 45,794kg of fodder were seized. A total of 1,077 animal licences were issued in Ahmedabad city.”
An official from the CNCD department of AMC, speaking anonymously, said, “Before the policy was implemented, we received 3,600 to 4,000 complaints about stray cattle each month, but in the last 10 months, only 1,000 complaints were received.” Most of these complaints were from registered animal owners keeping their animals on their premises, but neighbours complained about the mess.