Estonian farmers are to become the first to cough up for their cattle's belching and flatulence. The country's government has announced plans to charge a greenhouse gas tax for the methane and carbon dioxide produced by cows. Each cow produces around 350 litres of methane and 1,500 litres of CO2 per day and cattle are responsible for around 25% of Estonia's methane emissions. Sam Bond

Sasan: Call it the lion's share, twice over. For every

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is now planning to launch a vigorous campaign for the rounding up of stray cattle and removal of illegal diaries to meet the Delhi High Court deadline. The MCD has written to the Home ministry and asked for a police force comprising 130 police personnel on a permanent basis till August 31, 2008.

The provincial directorate of Animal Husbandry has advised livestock owners and farmers to get their animals vaccinated against black quarter, foot-and-mouth, enterotoxemia and sheep pox diseases that usually surface during April and June. Talking about the risks of the diseases, Dr Hafeez Shaikh, in-charge of the Government Veterinary Hospital, Landhi, told Dawn that all the four diseases were quite common and posed serious threats to the animals' health, at times resulting in a low milk production.

When urbanization spreads its wings, villagers thus overshadowed find it difficult to get their heads around developments. A recent incident, where a group of farmers from south Thimphu met to discuss the Thimphu city corporation's rule, which bans rearing livestock in the capital city's jurisdiction, bears witness to the growing conflict between planners and farmers. On Monday, after a farmer from Tshalimarphey found her two missing cows in the, as she put it, "central jail for cattle' in lower Mothithang, farmers appealed to the city to bend the rule.

More companies around the world are adjusting their farm-animal confinement policies and requesting clarification of consumer labels to reflect these changes. The moves come largely in response to U.S. voter-led initiatives and the implementation of farm policy reforms in the European Union.