New Delhi - Police in central India are sticking glow-in-the-dark strips on the horns of stray cattle to prevent motorists from crashing into the animals as they wander across roads at night, an officer said on Tuesday.

Following a spate of road accidents, traffic police in one district of Madhya Pradesh state have stuck orange radium reflective bands on the horns of 300 cows and bulls to help drivers spot them.

Stray cattle are a major traffic menace in India, with hundreds of bovines roaming freely on roads across the country.

"Many drivers injured themselves or killed the cattle after running over them at night," Kailash Chauhan, traffic police inspector for Balaghat district said.

"There was an urgent need to prevent such accidents," he said.

Because of the success of the scheme, officers say they now plan to buy permanent radium paint to cover cows' horns, as the plastic bands only last for a few weeks.

Authorities have also asked farmers to fix glow-in-the-dark bands on their own cattle

In 2015 more than 550 people were killed in India in accidents involving stray animals, according to road ministry figures.

A World Health Organisation report in 2013 said more than 231 000 people die on India's deadly roads each year.

