By Mayank Dixit
The problem of stray cattle is not a new thing to happen in our country. According to a 2012 data from livestock census, nearly 3% of the total cattle population in India is stray. And since then the number has been increasing with each year.
In the last few years, cow vigilante groups have totally disrupted the livestock business majorly.
After the Centre notified the Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Rules, 2017, it has become difficult for farmers to buy, sell and transport cattle. Earlier, the farmers used to sell their old or unproductive cattle to traders in the state where slaughter is allowed. They would then purchase young and fresh bovines from cattle fairs.
But now, due to increased violence from the self-appointed gau rakshaks, farmers have abandoned this practice and they are simply abandoning their cattle.
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Once an asset, the cows are slowly becoming a liability for the farmers. The population of stray cattle has increased drastically since slaughterhouses have been shut down. It was a good move to protect the cows, but no steps have been taken to provide shelter to the stray cattle. They usually enter fields and destroy the crops.
Take for example Rajasthan. It has nearly 2500 gaushalas which house more than 6 lakh cows but according to a report, the number of cows wandering the streets is almost double the number of cows stored in gaushalas. Many civic bodies all over the country are finding it difficult to control the traffic nuisance stray cows cause, not on city roads but on the highway also.
Extraordinary patriotism shown by cow vigilantes, coupled with the tough laws for cow transportation, have forced the farmers to abandon the idea of buying cattle altogether.
Skinners refuse to touch even a dead cow, the leather and meat units are seeing a decline in production, the dairy industry is hit.
But all these issues are still not big enough to satisfy the egos of true blue nation lovers. This palpable fear spread by the exodus of the vigilantes only goes on to show how easy it for a few people to make the country hostage to their demands and make others dance to the tunes of their own interests.
The farmer in India is already living such an easy life. This cattle issue is now surely going to make their life easier.
And finally coming to our ever so beloved, it seems that Gau Mata is not that holy after all.
Or the holiness belongs to the fresh cattle only meanwhile the old ones, well, have to adjust to the fact that the nation doesn’t love them anymore.
Image Credits: Google Images
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