Bhopal, Feb 1 (IANS): A day after a number of cows were found dead at a cowshed in Berasia near Bhopal, the Madhya Pradesh government on Monday ordered a magisterial probe into the matter.

The government has also directed to set up a medical camp for providing treatment to the cows, and instructed the officials to shift them to other cowsheds.

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said on Monday that it was learnt after the post-mortem that the cows had died due to several reasons like old age, pneumonia and liver failure.

"The case of death of cows at a private cowshed in Berasia is sad. The state government will now take proper care of the cows by taking the operation of this gaushala in its own hands," Mishra said at a press conference.

The minister said that a 'private party' has been operating cowshed on the government land, which now will be made encroachment-free.

On Sunday, the Bhopal district administration had booked Nirmala Devi Shandilya, the proprietor of cowshed in Berasia. She is said to be associated with the BJP.

While a number of cows were found dead, skeletons of cows were found near the same cowshed.

Shandilya had been running a cow shelter in Berasia for the past 30 years.

The matter came into light on Sunday after some villagers shot video of carcasses of cows that were left abandoned in a dry well near the shelter and posted on social media.

Later, a team led by district collector Avinash Lavania visited the shelter.

"During the visit, we found about 60 carcasses of cows. Most of them were fully decomposed. About half a dozen cows were killed in the past one week and their carcasses were sent for post-mortem to know the reason behind the deaths. The FIR was registered for not disposing of the carcasses. A camp was also organised to check the health condition of the rest of the cows... around 200 in number," Lavania said.

It has also been learnt that in the last two years, the state government has provided over Rs 21 lakh for the cowshed -- Bharati gaushala in Berasia.