Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

GOSADANS

• The Government of India appointed a ‘Cattle Preservation and Development Committee’ on November 19th, 1947 under the chairmanship of Sardar Datar Singh, Vice President of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
• Along with other issues, the Committee also studied as to how agencies like Gaushalas and Cattle Protection Societies and Salvage Centres could be utilised for preserving cattle wealth and for promoting its development.
• The Committee recommended establishment of ‘Gosadans’ where ‘uneconomic’ cattle could be housed cheaply and allowed to die naturally.
• In pursuance of this recommendation a scheme for establishment of 160 Gosadans in the country was included in the first Five Year Plan with an outlay of Rs. 97.15 lakhs with the idea to segregate the old, unproductive and useless cattle from the good ones so as to control promiscuous breeding and also to relieve pressure on the limited resources of feeds and fodder available for the productive stock.
• The segregated cattle are housed in proper shelters or shed and maintained on natural pastures and hay. The scheme was launched to solve the problem of degraded cattle.
• One Gosadan was designed to house 2000 cattle in a land of about 4000 acres. It was estimated that a Gosadan, capable of housing 2000 cattle, would require Rs. 50,000 as non-recurring, and Rs. 20,000 as recurring expenditure per annum.
• The scheme could not achieve the projected targets. Only 17 Gosadans could be started during the plan period. Established in the States of Bihar, UP, Pepsu, Coorg, Bhopal, Kutch, Vindhya Pradesh, Tripura and Saurashtra, these Gosadans could have only 5293 cattle against the capacity of 34,000.
• Lack of funds with the State Governments for meeting their share of expenditure, non-availability of suitable land, absence of legislative measures for the compulsory removal of unproductive cattle from owner’s premises, transport difficulties etc. are the reasons generally advanced as to why the ‘Gosadan’ scheme could not succeed then.