The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the States and the Centre on a petition seeking directions to formulate a national health plan to deal with the lumpy skin disease which is spreading among the cattle of the country.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and J. B. Pardiwala considered a petition filed by Aryavarta Mahasabha Foundation which raised the question whether the Centre has any national plan on lumpy skin disease preparedness and whether the States have prepared any plan to stop the spreading of the disease and further death of the cattle.
Advocate Pawan Prakash Pathak appeared for the petitioner. The petition was filed through Advocate Arup Banerjee.
The plea highlighted the fact that over 75,000 cattle have died due to the lumpy skin disease since July which as per news reports.
The petition pointed out that the Centre has begun administering the goat pox vaccine to all the cattle in the affected states which the Government has said to be 100% effective. It was also stated that as per the news reports, 1.5 crore doses have already been administered in the affected states out of the total cattle population in the country of 20 crores. The plea also stated that India has developed an indigenous vaccine 'Lumpi-ProVacInd' for the lumpy disease and two companies are manufacturing this vaccine.
"States like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab are already reporting a drop in the milk yield in cows due to debilitating lumpy skin disease. It had led to the death of not just cows, but also buffaloes, bulls and oxen. Milk yield could be severely impacted if vaccination is further delayed", the plea further added.
The petition thus sought that a direction be passed to formulate a national health plan on Lumpy Skin Disease among cattle and an action plan for vaccination of cattle be prepared within a reasonable period of time.
A direction was further sought regarding arrangement to bury the cattle deceased due to the disease in order to prevent further spread and formulation of an action plan for further spread of the disease or related disease.
The first case of Lumpy Disease was reported in April 2022 in Gujarat's Kutch region and since then the disease has spread rapidly in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The disease mainly affects the cows causing fever, nodules on the skin and can also lead to deaths especially in cases where the animal has not been previously exposed to the virus.
Case Title : Aryavarta Mahasabha Foundation vs Union of India and Ors. – W. P. (C) No. 865/2022
