Slaughter ban leads to cattle chaos in India
24/11/2017
Madhya Pradesh, home to leather manufacturers such as Tata International’s tanning division at Dewas, was an early adopter of legislation banning all cattle slaughter, which other Indian states have since followed because cows are revered in Hinduism. Slaughter of male cattle has traditionally been permitted and the meat and hides have always been bought and used, but a ban on all cattle slaughter has put a stop to this in some parts of the country.
Because Madhya Pradesh banned all cattle slaughter early, some unforeseen consequences of the ban have come to light there first, including complaints from farmers that cows and bulls, abandoned by farmers who say they cannot afford to keep the animals, are now causing serious damage to food crops. “Our crops are being destroyed by bulls and cows,” one farmer told the FT. “Unless we wake up and chase them away, they just destroy everything.”
There will also be consequences for the milk sector in India. The vice-chancellor of a specialist veterinary and animal sciences university in Punjab, AS Nanda, told the newspaper that demand for milk is on the rise in India but that production will “definitely decrease” as a result of the slaughter ban. “If the farmer is forced to keep redundant and infertile animals at his own cost there will be negative growth in milk production,” he said. He explained that farmers are not being paid a high enough price for their milk to fund higher animal care costs.
In Madhya Pradesh, the government has tried to alleviate the problem by setting up ‘gaushalas’, shelters where farmers can take cattle they cannot afford to keep. However, according to the FT report, a fee of around $7.50 that they have to give the ‘gaushalas’ per animal is steep enough to put many farmers off and animals continue to be abandoned instead.
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