Why in news?

 The Karnataka government’s ambitious cow adoption scheme ‘Punyakoti Dattu Yojane’ has seen a mere minority adoption hit by poor response

Reasons for the poor response

• The problem is majority of the cattle are old, ailing, yielding no milk and rescued by police or/and abandoned by farmers, are sheltered at 170 private and eight government-run goshalas.
• A private goshala, on an average, requires Rs 300 a cow per day for fodder, medicines and labour. However, the government gives only Rs 17.5 a cow per day for fodder.
• With limited financial sources and no returns from cattle sheds, the management is struggling to run them.
• Lack of awareness is one of the reasons for low adoption

About Punyakoti Dattu Yojana

• Under this initiative, Individuals may adopt cattle by paying rupees 11,000 per animal, for a period of the year.
• Time frame : Anyone can also choose the length of time, which can be anywhere from 3 months to 5 years.
• This program encourages private and public organizations to adopt cows from goshalas (cow shelters)
• Goal : To encourage the public to provide better amenities for the cows in the cattle sheds.
• Program will not only aid in the breeding of cows but also in the preservation of the herd.
• Adoption : Any individual can adopt a cow from the cow shelter, feed them and also donate money for cow shelters from Punyakoti dattu portal
• The public can contribute around 10 rupees to any of the go fuels on the Punyakoti Adoption Portal website.
• Online Portal benefits : To adopt a cow, feed a cow and anyone can also donate their cow to cow shelters.

Why this scheme ?

• To overcome, the disappearance of local cow breeds has been attributed to the illicit killing of cattle and the abandonment of cows by farmers experiencing financial difficulties.

• This is a one-of-a-kind program that will give the people the opportunity to join hands with the government in order to care for our cows and make our goshalas “Atma-nirbhar.”