Holy cow! Police in MP put glow-in-the-dark strips on cattle

In its efforts to bring down roads accidents caused due to stray cattle, police in Madhya Pradesh have come up with an innovate idea. They have started pasting glow-in-the-dark stickers on the horns of the bovines.

According to a report by AFP, the step was taken following a spate of accidents in Balaghat district. The traffic police are now being tasked to stick orange radium reflectors on the cows and bulls.

The horns of some 300 cows and bulls have been plastered, to help drivers spot them easily in the dark. Stray cattle remain a major traffic nuisance even in the major cities, where hundreds of bovines roaming freely on roads.

“Many drivers injured themselves or killed the cattle after running over them at night,” Kailash Chauhan, traffic police inspector in Balaghat told AFP.

Because of the success of the scheme, officers say they now plan to buy permanent radium paint, as the plastic bands only last for a few weeks.

Authorities have also asked farmers to fix glow-in-the-dark bands on their own cattle to help them be seen more easily.

In 2015 more than 550 people were killed in India in accidents involving stray animals, according to road ministry figures.