By Our Correspondent
Mahottari, Oct. 6: Nigaul Gai Gaushala (cow farm) in Gaushala Municipality of Mahottari district has been facing an acute shortage of funds to feed its cows.
The farm has sufficient land and had a source of income in the past, but now it is facing a shortage of funds even to feed the cows.
The management of the Nigaul Gai Gaushala has been forced to reach out to donors for funds to buy food for the cows.
Radhe Shyam Khanal, acting chief of the Nigaul Gai Gaushala management office, said there was a problem in feeding fodder to the cows reared in the farm as the office failed to collect millions of rupees from the contractors using its lands.
At present, there are more than 300 cows in the two cowsheds at Nigaul and Gaushala. He said that there are 149 cows of Jersey and Augustan species in Nigaul in Nawarajpur, and most of them give milk regularly.
Khanal said, “After receiving information that there is a problem in feeding the cows due to lack of funds, local social worker Laxmi Mahato provided Rs. 100,000 immediately.”
Despite receiving more than 130 litres of milk every day from the cows, there has been a shortage of milk for the past few days due to lack of nutritious food for the cows.
The production of milk has been reduced due to a lack of regular food for the cows, said Khanal. Twenty two people are employed to take care of the cows.
Nigaul cow farm has its own pond, gardens of mango, lychee, orchard and cultivable land. The Gaushala Municipality is making income by setting up a cattle shed on the land of the farm. However, due to failure to make any income from the lease out resources, it is not possible to procure healthy food for the cows, said Khanal.
He informed that Rs. 10 million is yet to be collected from Gaushala Municipality from the market contract. He said that there was a written agreement between Gaushala VDC and Nigaul Gai Gaushala to give 25 per cent of the total contract amount of the market to Nigaul Gai Gaushala.
In 1983, Darbhanga Maharaj of Bihar, India, set up the Nigaul Gai Gaushala in an area of ​​200 bighas of land to protect 1,500 cows. But most of the area has now been encroached.
The management of Gaushala came under the Chief District Officer in 1991.
Meanwhile, Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives of State 2 Shailendra Prasad Sah inspected Gaushala on Saturday and expressed commitment to provide necessary assistance from the state government.