Lucknow, Mar 15 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh animal husbandry department is working on an ambitious plan to deal with stray cattle menace.

The department has taken the help of state government's consultant, Deloitte, to prepare a detailed blueprint of the plan to get rid of stray cattle menace.

Animal Husbandry Minister Dharampal Singh said, "As per the initial plan, the animal husbandry department would allot around 25-30 acre of land to NGOs, institutions, or individuals after taking expression of interest and they would be responsible for the upkeep of at least 2,000 stray animals on the land provided to them. "The entire exercise will be conducted on a public private partnership (PPP) mode."

He said that the interested party would be allowed to carry out commercial activities like production of bio-CNG, sale of products made of cow dung and cow urine, and setting up of a dairy.

"The interested parties will be given a maximum of 4,000 'desi' cows. The idea is to improve the quality of the breed and save these cows from extinction," he said.

The minister said that the plan would soon be brought before the state cabinet for approval.

He said, "Land will be given to interested parties free of cost on a 30-year lease. From the government side, the interested parties will be facilitated with high quality semen of milch cow breeds like Sahiwal and Haryanavi."

As per the agreement, the interested parties will have to invest money in infrastructure development like construction of boundary wall and other requirements to run a dairy. Officials said that the set up could also have poultry, goat or lamb farms or a dairy and these activities could be commercialised to make maintenance of stray cattle a profitable project.

The minister said that a proper agreement would be signed with the interested parties to ensure the animals did not end up in slaughterhouses.