Chhattisgarh High Court Constitutes Committee To Address Issue Of Movement Of Stray Animals On Highways

The Chhattisgarh High Court recently constituted an eight-member committee headed by the Chief Secretary of the State to address the rising cases of accidents due to uncontrolled movement of stray cattle and animals on roads, including highways.

While issuing strict directions, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Rajani Dubey said,

“The aforesaid Committee shall look into the aforesaid aspect and implement the aforesaid provisions of law and the Acts from Panchayat level to State level and shall monitor that all stakeholders are implementing the aforesaid provisions of law and the Acts, failing which, the stringent action would be taken against them.”

Two writ petitions were filed in the nature of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) whereby the petitioners sought to attract the attention of the Court towards the persistent problem of wandering of stray cattle along the roads in the State of Chhattisgarh.

The petitioners pleaded that due to movement of such stray cattle on the roads, including State and National Highways, accidents have become more frequent which are not only causing loss of human lives but also resulting in injuries to innocent animals.

The State counsel submitted that multiple schemes have been launched and are being implemented so as to provide incentives to the cattle-owners for keeping such stray cattle within the bounds.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), which was arrayed as a respondent, not only underlined different initiatives taken by it to control the said menace but also pointed out some of the reasons for which the issue is quite persistent.

After taking into account the submissions made by the parties, the Court was of the considered view that though there are numerous provisions of law, but those are not implemented in letter and spirit. Therefore, it deemed necessary to constitute a committee for proper implementation of the provisions of laws.

Accordingly, the Court ordered for constitution of an eight-member committee headed by the Chief Secretary of the Government of Chhattisgarh. The said committee will have Secretaries of the departments of Urban Administration and Development, Panchayat and Rural Development and Veterinary as members.

Apart from them, the Additional Director General of Police (Traffic), Regional Officer, Ministry of Road, Transport & Highway, Regional Officer, NHAI and Chief Engineer, PWD, NH Division are also appointed as members of the committee.

Further, the Bench listed down the following aspects which the committee will have to monitor on a regular basis.

• The committee shall ensure removal of unattended stray animals such as stray cattle and bulls, from all the National Highways and State Highways within the jurisdiction of State of Chhattisgarh, as well as from the roads within the jurisdiction of Municipal Councils, Gram Panchayats and other concerned departments.
• It can ensure that the Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils, Gram Panchayats and other concerned departments may devise sufficient mechanisms to catch stray cattle and animals found on roads and streets. Once they are caught, they shall be impounded and may be released to owners after taking appropriate proceedings against them along with payment of fine as per the provisions of prevailing laws, if any.
• The committee may ensure that the Municipal Councils, Gram Panchayats and other concerned departments within the State shall relocate stray cattle from the roads to Gaushalas, Gauthans or institutions made for providing shelter to stray cattle. It may also ensure that such areas shall be clean and dry, wherein the cattles may rest.
• For removal of stray cattle from roads and for the relocation to the Gaushalas etc., the Municipal Corporation and concerned departments shall press into service, sufficient number of persons and vehicles for impounding and relocating animals. The vehicles which are used for carrying impounded cattle and animals shall be fitted with ramps in order to avoid the chances of injury to them.
• All efforts shall be made by the Corporation and the State Government to remove cattle from public roads and Highways because stray cattle on the roads and highways are not only hindering the smooth and safe movement of traffic but are also very dangerous and sometimes fatal and are likely to create hygienic problems also.
• The committee may ensure that the concerned departments or committees shall devise sufficient mechanism for putting reflective tapes on the neck of cattle, to enable road users to detect such obstruction from sufficient distance.
• The committee may direct the concerned departments to ensure that the cattle located in the towns and cities shall have a tag number tied around their necks and the tag number should be indicative of the name and address of the person to whom the animal belongs so that there will be no difficulty in tracing their owners. This direction shall be carried out by the person(s) owning the cattle. The enforcement of this condition shall be made by the civic authorities.
• The committee may ensure that the concerned department may evolve mechanism for providing facilities to the citizens to lodge complaints over these kind of civic issues by circulating to the public at large telephone numbers of team who can remove stray animals. The committee shall find out a permanent solution of cattle menace, may be by enacting appropriate law.

The committee is directed to submit its report by September 4, 2023 and on that date, the Chief Secretary is ordered to file personal affidavit on the aforesaid issue. The matter is now posted for further hearing on September 4, 2023.

Case Title: Sanjay Rajak v. State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.

Case No.: WPPIL No. 58 of 2019

Order Dated: July 13, 2023

Appearances: Mr. Amit Soni & Mr. Shayon Kar, Advocates for the Petitioners; Mr. Chandresh Shrivastava, Additional A.G. for the State; Mr. Ramakant Mishra, Dy. Solicitor General for the Union; Mr. Dhiraj Wankhede & Mr. Sahil Singh, Advocates for the NHAI; Mr. A.S. Kachhawaha, Mr. B.D. Guru, Mr. Anuroop Panda, Mr. Sourabh Sharma & Mr. Shailesh Tiwari, Ms. Sandhya Tiwari on behalf of Dr. Sudeep Agrawal, Advocates for the Respondent Municipal Corporations; Mr. Rohit Sharma, Advocate for the SLSA.

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