Study of stray cattle problems in the Kalmunai regional health division

Abstract

Ampara District in Sri Lanka is a center for a large number of farming families where a large number of people are engaged in cattle rearing as their livelihood. The highest population of cattle are reared in the Kalmunai regional health division which belongs to the Ampara District. The stray cattle has become serious concern in recent days as the abundance of stray cattle keep increasing in this area. Therefore, this study attempt to find the answers to root cause of the cattle become stray animal, the problems raised by the stray cattle and the measures can be undertaken to overcome this issue. The questionnaire administrated respondent’s socio-demographic data and stray cattle related information. There were 150 randomly selected responses recorded from Kalmunai regional division. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. According to the survey results, stray cattle could be seen around mostly in road sides (98%) followed by public places (80%) and private lands (63%) in the Kalmunai regional area. Further, out of 89% of the respondents reported that stary cattle have owners in respective divisional areas. The main reasons for cattle left as stary animals were improper management of owners, over population, insufficient grazing lands, negligence of owners and local govern bodies. According to the responses of the respondents, main problems raised by the stray cattle were road accidents, damage to the cultivations, inflicting injuries to the human, spread of diseases, disturbance to the passengers and roads and premises become ugly. The study found the following as measures to prevent cattle become stray animal; need more legal framework to control stray cattle, create awareness among owners, allocate more area for grazing, impose fine on owners, actions should be taken by village level societies and action needs to be taken by local government.