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The Ministry of Environment and Forests of India is looking at a plan to build cow shelters for the 5m stray cattle that roam its streets, according to Basudev Ahapatra.
Hindus believe cows and oxen are sacred animals and will neither kill nor allow anybody to kill these animals even when they become non-productive.
India has a total of 5,287,767 stray cattle, according to the livestock census of 2012, and most of them live in villages but they can also be seen in the bigger cities.
Abandoned by farmers
While most of the oxen are not domesticated, cows are abandoned by farmers to roam when they stop giving milk.
The new plan is aimed at collecting and housing the cattle in shelters across the country where they will not have to end their lives eating plastic and rubbish.
The ministry has asked the Animal Welfare Board of India to make the financial assessment for setting up the cow shelters.
The animal husbandry and dairying ministers in Haryana State have started on a similar project to create 40 cow sanctuaries for about 117,000 cows in that state.
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