Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has demanded that the central government should declare the lumpy skin disease in cows as pandemic, which has spread across seven states and has killed 22,000 in Rajasthan alone

Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan on Thursday has demanded the central government to declare the lumpy skin disease in cows as pandemic. The disease has spread across 7 states on the country.

Gehlot said, “Around seven to eight states are affected with the lumpy disease. We demand the GoI to declare the disease as pandemic. The way cows succumb to this disease is painful and unimaginable."

He further went on to say that there is no vaccine or medicine in the country for this disease and if the cow is affected, they cannot be vaccinated as it needs to be done before. Now, the experiments have started and soon a vaccine will be made available in the market.

“The situation is worse and if the disease continues to spread, then like Covid, it will affect our cattle. If it is declared pandemic then the state can get relief from disaster funds and effective work could be done. The disease is dangerous and spreading rapidly, even the situation in Gujarat is deteriorating," Cheif Minister said.

Earlier on 10 August, PTI had tweeted Gehlot's statement about making adequate arrangements  to control the disease.

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot says adequate arrangements being made at every level to control spread of lumpy skin disease among cattle

More than 22,000 animals in Rajasthan, mainly cows, have died due to the infectious lumpy skin disease, which has spread in 29 of 33 districts of the state.

Jodhpur, Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Pali, Sirohi, Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Ajmer, Nagaur, Bhilwara, Tonk, Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Alwar, Dausa, Chittorgarh, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Banswara, Rajsamand, Pratapgarh, Dungarpur and Udaipur have all reported cases.

Ganganagar has been worst hit by the disease with 3,672 deaths, followed by Jodhpur (2,426), Hanumangarh (2,167), Nagaur (2,099), Barmer (1,973), Jalore (1,765) and Bikaner (1,704). Of the 5,12,140 infected animals, over 4,61,643 have been treated.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to combat the disease, chief secretary Usha Sharma discussed effective Ayurvedic medicines in prevention of lumpy disease in a meeting with the officers of Ayurveda and animal husbandry department.

Sharma directed the officers of the Ayurveda department to issue necessary circulars and guidelines regarding the use of effective Ayurvedic medicines.

Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Thursday attacked the ruling BJP in Haryana, alleging that it does politics in the name of cows but left the animal to its own fate amid the spread of lumpy skin disease.

The Rajya Sabha MP said within a month, about 30,000 cows have been infected with the disease in 2,354 villages of 16 districts and 200 of them have died.

With inputs from wire agencies.

Download the Mint app and read premium stories

Log in to our website to save your bookmarks. It'll just take a moment.

You are just one step away from creating your watchlist!

Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.

Your session has expired, please login again.

You are now subscribed to our newsletters. In case you can’t find any email from our side, please check the spam folder.

This is a subscriber only feature Subscribe Now to get daily updates on WhatsApp