The civic body and the fisheries and animal resources department have jointly launched a drive to tag livestock to free city roads of cattle menace before the Men’s Hockey World Cup here.

Once all the livestock are tagged, it will be easier for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to identify the animals and fine their owners for setting them free on city streets.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said that the Men’s Hockey World Cup, 2018, will bring tourism into focus in the city. “To stop stray cattle menace and also to make the city roads safe, we launched the ear-tagging drive for the cattle across the city on Tuesday,” said Jena. He said that the tagging of cattle would also help their owners identify their animals during any natural calamity, theft and cattle smuggling.

Later on Tuesday, the mayor also flagged off vehicles with public announcement systems to create mass awareness about ear-tagging of cattle in the city. Deputy commissioner of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Subhranshu Mishra said that all the cattle in the city limits would be tagged during the drive. “The tagging is done free and in the first phase, 2,000 cattle would be covered. People can take their cattle to the nearest veterinary clinic and get them tagged,” said Mishra.

Once the tagging is done, if cattle are found roaming here and there on the city roads, a cattle-catching squad will catch them and take Rs 1,000 from their owners for the release of each animal. In case of untagged cattle, the owner has to pay Rs 1,500 as a fine. There would also be additional daily fine on the cattle owners.

“We are now getting much global attention as a smart city and also for the Men’s Hockey World Cup. The event is all set to take Bhubaneswar as a major sports hub in the world. In such a situation, cattle tagging will immensely help the civic body to make the city safe,” said social worker Alok Kar.