The cattle deaths in Lingasugur increased last year as more than 350 cattle lost their lives which is 55 percent more than the previous year.
Lingasugur, a taluk in Raichur district is heavily dependent on its agriculture and dairy farming. But as of now, this taluk is currently battling an issue which is unaddressed and overlooked for years. For the past 10 years now, Lingasugur has been facing the shortage of veterinarians which is directly impacting the income of dairy farmers and agriculture of Lingasugur.
One of the veterinarians of Lingasugur said, “There are supposed to be 20 doctors in the taluk but there are only six which is creating a lot of problems for us to manage the work.”
As per the data provided by the Lingasugur Taluk Hospital, the doctors were able to attend 70 thousand cases in 2021-22. But due to shortage of vets, they could attend only 50 thousand cases in 2022-2023. The cattle deaths in Lingasugur also increased last year as more than 350 cattle lost their lives which is 55 percent more than the previous year.
Lachu Bai, one of the dairy farmers of Lingasugur said, “Whenever we try to call these doctors and if they are at some other location, then it gets pretty late. Sometimes if we call them at 11 in the morning then they reach the hospital at 3 or 4 in the evening.” There are more farmers who are facing a similar issue. One of the other farmers Hemad said, “There are about five to six doctors, they do come for treatment when called, but it takes time to get the treatment done. It was better if there were more doctors.”
Some of the other dairy farmers have said that the doctors are unavailable for days which is why farmers’ dairy work gets affected as they are unable to deliver milk to retail shops and customers. One such farmer is Javed as he said, “I have 10 goats and sheep. I do farming with my cattle. I have to visit the vet twice a month. The treatment is fine but there are times when the doctor is not there for a couple of days, their vet hospital is nearby my house. One of my cows died due to Lumpy Skin Disease. There was no vaccination I received for my cow which could have prevented it. I think there is a need to have more doctors as there are villages nearby who do not have hospitals or doctors.”
The veterinarians of Lingasugur have complained multiple times to the head office to fill up more vacancies, but the state government has refused to take any actions. He further said that they have been facing this issue for 20 years now.
The Chief Health Officer of Lingasugur said, “Here the major problem is that nearly one doctor is covering almost 60-75 cases, so that is a huge issue we are facing here. One major problem is that within the required time, it is not possible to attend all the cases. If the cases are more and they are coming at the same time, we are unable to attend all those cases.”
Some of the on-site vets have also faced this issue when they have to travel faraway distances to take up cases. The vets have said that they faced major problems during the Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) outbreak as the number of doctors were less which led to delay in vaccinations to farmers’ cattle. Another data by Lingasugur Taluk Vet Hospital says that Lumpy Skin Disease had a severe outbreak in 2022 as 35 percent of the total LSD cases in Raichur were from Lingasugur which is more than any other Taluk.
Lingasugur has been battling this problem for a long time now, and some farmers have also come out and said that sometimes the doctors suggest they self treat their own cattle as they can’t reach there on time.
The higher authorities say that this is the only problem that they are currently facing and will start the process of appointing vets to all the affected taluks of Karnataka.
