On Monday, Modi government informed the Supreme Court of India a unique identification number for animals has been suggested by an expert panel to track cattles.

Each animal has to be tagged with a unique identification number with proper records of identification details like age, breed, sex, lactation, height, body colour, horn type, tail switch and special marks.

The recommendations were placed before a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud which listed the PIL filed by Akhil Bharat Krishi Gosewa Sangh for passing directions by considering these recommendations.

India has nearly 44 million buffaloes and 47 million indigenous and cross-bred cows that produce milk. UP has the highest cattle population (16 million) in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh (9 million), Rajasthan (8.4 million), Gujarat (6.2 million) and Andhra Pradesh (5.4 million).

The Indian milk economy is worth Rs 5 lakh crore, growing at a CAGR of 15-16 per cent, out of which the organised milk economy is worth Rs 80,000 crore.

The government wants to double the country’s milk production by 2020. Hence, by tagging the cattle, the government aims to ensure that scientific intervention is made available for better breeding and assist in augmenting milk yields say government sources .

Government sources added according to a report published in Medical device by Prakash Vizzeswarapu, commercial development manager, NAFTA TPU Resins, Bayer Material Science, the tag that has been made from thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer are now being increasingly used for medical applications due to the material’s desirable chemical properties, excellent mechanical characteristics and biocompatibility. Also, it does not cause discomfort to the cattle as the tag weighs just eight grams.

Government officials plan for nearly one lakh technicians have been armed with 50,000 tablets. Their mission is to affix a polyurethane tag on the ears of the cattle with a tag applicator.The yellow-colored tag is fixed in the centre of the ear lobe. These tags cost Rs 8 apiece and are light weighted.

Once the tag is fixed, the technician will use a tablet to update the number in an online database. He/she will also provide the cattle owner with an ‘animal health card' recording the UID number, owner’s details, status of periodic de-worming and vaccinations of the animal as well as breeding details. This will help track the cattle along with all relevant details.

Reportedly, these tags are tamper-proof and cannot be easily opened. According to Centre, this tags will stop trafficking of cattle across the Indo-Bangla border. It also includes concern over smuggling of cattle to Nepal for being sacrificed at the Gadhimai festival, held once in five years.

Bangladeshi cattle markets are full of cattle illegally smuggled from India. Mohammed Rehan, who works at Gabtole, one of the biggest cattle market of Bangladesh, a 13km drive from Capital Dhaka told India Today. “On an average, around 3,000 cattle make it to Gabtole daily from India and Nepal. The prices have now gone up due to higher risk and bribe rates.”

The government has fixed targets for all states to completed the task within 2017. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, 1.4 million cattle have to have the tags every month while Madhya Pradesh has to tag 750,000 cattle per month.

State governments will be provided funds for undertaking the program . At present only just around 0.8 to 1 million cattle are tagged in India.

Having just 1% job done, to cover almost 90 million bovines with tags with in the expected target is very difficult exercise says animal care workers., more over by doing tags alone will it help doubling the milk production cautions veterinary specialists as this involve lot of climatic, social bound research studies that Indian veterinary universities presently not having proper facilities adhered with . A close watch of above picture illustrates how developed nation like america maintain and monitor their cattle stocks

If the mission of government is to curb smuggling of cattle across border then instead of just numbering and taking online data base , the tracking system as done in america . europe to be followed . Even if those Radio frequency ID tags been done and still if not elimination of present corrupt border security systems takes place , then this UID tagging exercise becomes futile .

With respect to doubling of milk production not only developed countries bar code scanning health rating tags to be studied but also Veterinary universities standards to be upgraded coping up with global standards and young generation need to be given opportunities for research studies rather engage them with sticks and making them roam around in streets by indulging in violence in the name of cow savers.