The state animal resource development department has decided to take up the mammoth task of tagging nearly one crore cattle heads in north Bengal in a bid to check the rampant smuggling of the animal to Bangladesh.

Senior officials of the department said they would soon start vaccinating cows and buffaloes against foot & mouth disease (FMD). The infectious viral disease affects cloven-hoofed animals and can sometimes prove fatal for them.

“Around 90 lakh cattle heads will be vaccinated in north Bengal. At that time, each bovine animal would be tagged with a 12-digit identification number. The tag would be pierced into an earlobe so that each animal will have a unique number,” said Uttam Kumar Dey, a joint director of the ARD in north Bengal.

The exercise, he said, will start from November 15 and continue till December 31.

The tag will be made of polyurethane which will contain the name and address of the animal’s owner, besides the identification number that will be updated on a central data server.

Sources said the issue of cattle smuggling had time and again been mentioned at different quarters, both at state and central levels. In the past few weeks, it was found that politicians and even some officials of the BSF were allegedly involved in the smuggling.

Once the tagging is done, the data would be shared with police in each district, along with the Border Security Force and the Customs department.

“This, we believe, will help in reducing cattle smuggling. If a herd of cattle is noticed near the India-Bangladesh border, the police and the BSF can find out whether any local person owns the animals or they have been brought from outside with a wrong intention of smuggling. If any animal goes missing, it can be easily located with the help of the tag,” said the joint director.

The employees of the ARD department, he said, will visit the tiny hamlets located on the fringes of reserve forests to vaccinate and tag the animals.

“The cattle from these villages often enter the reserve forests for grazing and thus, there is a risk as wild animals might get infected from the cattle. That is why, vaccination is important in these areas,” said Dey.