The Centre has proposed issuing “Unique Identification Number Sequences” for cows and their progeny to protect them from cattle smuggling. The plan is the brainchild of the Union Agriculture Ministry for “tamper-proof identification of cattle using polyurethene tags with a Unique Identification Number Sequence.”

“The Ministry of Agriculture has devised a method of tamper-proof identification of cattle using polyurethene tags with Unique Identification Number Sequence. This may be made mandatory for all cow and its progeny throughout India for all cattle that is owned,” said a government committee report filed before a Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on Monday.

The Committee recommended that each animal be tagged with proper records of identification details, including age, breed, sex, lactation, height, body, colour, horn type, tail switch and special marks. It said “mass-tagging” of cattle was already practised for insurance purpose.

The Committee, led by a Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said it found cattle smuggling to be a “by-product” of the dairy industry.

Stray, “retired” and abandoned cattle face high risk of falling into smugglers’ hands, the panel said. So, cattle smuggling should be stopped at the source, instead of on the India-Bangladesh border at the cost of the lives of BSF jawans, it said.

The government said four BSF jawans were killed and 302 injured in skirmishes with cattle smugglers over the past three years. “Dry dairy scheme could be declared a scheme of national priority,” the panel suggested.