Tag: cattle

Livestock Bill Creation and Withdrawal Shows Govt’s Disregard for Farmers’ Livelihoods

While the government appears to have shelved the Bill for the moment, it still stands accountable to its trade policies on the export of livestock and livestock products.

The Union government on June 7 introduced the Livestock and Livestock Products (Importation and Exportation) Bill, 2023, as a replacement for the existing Livestock Importation (Amendment) Act, 2001. It has invited comments from the public and importers and exporters within ten days.

However, on June 20, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, which had notified its intention to replace the Act with the Bill, withdrew it, citing animal welfare and other sensitivities.

The Bill was criticised by animal rights activists and organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh like the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS). Although the BKS said that the Bill was ‘a panacea for the stray animal menace’, it also opposed the Bill saying it hurt religious and cultural beliefs. The activists cited the Bill’s potential to worsen animal abuse.

At the same time, it’s important to note that while the government appears to have shelved the Bill for the moment, it still stands accountable to its trade policies on the export of livestock and livestock products.

Government’s lack of consideration for caretakers of livestock

The original Act of 1898 regulated importation of animals, primarily to prevent the introduction of new diseases into the country. The 2001 amendment included a clause in the Act to regulate the import of livestock products, which included all varieties of meat, milk, eggs and their products, embryos, ova, semen, and pet foods of animal origins.

The draft new Bill, which has now been withdrawn, under section 2(e), had widened the definition of livestock to encompass every domesticated animal in India, including cats and dogs. It also included an entire new section on pro-actively promoting and developing the exports of livestock and livestock products.

It’s noteworthy that during both the creation and withdrawal of the Bill, the government did not consider the livelihoods and lives of the millions of caste-oppressed landless, marginal, and small farmers who depend on livestock for their survival. These farmers are the caretakers of nearly 70% of India’s livestock.

Therefore, as mentioned earlier, while the government appears to have shelved the Bill for the moment, it stands accountable as it enters into the ‘Make in India – export from India’ policies on livestock and livestock products.

Decline in indigenous livestock population

Livestock development, agriculture, land-use, and forest policies have led to rapid decline of the  indigenous livestock population. Now it stands to further shrink with an export-driven animal and livestock products policy.

Successive livestock census over the past 75 years have clearly revealed the massive decline in the population of various indigenous livestock breeds such as cattle, buffaloes, goats, sheep, horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, yak, camels, dogs, and poultry. Several indigenous breeds are identified as rare, endangered, and threatened.

Some of the critical policy decisions that have contributed overwhelmingly to this loss are listed below.

  • Industrialising dairy policies to promote high-producing dairy animals, thereby marginalising the role of our vast and diverse ecologically unique populations of multipurpose indigenous bovine breeds selectively bred over centuries by diverse caste-oppressed communities, to meet draught, milk, beef, manure, leather needs.
  • Strict anti-bovine slaughter policies that systematically deter rural farmers from rearing cattle because of a collapse in the resale value of old animals. Added to that, the increasing fear of being lynched to death, if you happen to be a ‘non-Hindu’, also deters farmers from rearing cattle.
  • Farm mechanisation policies that have resulted in the replacement of draught animal breeds across the country.
  • The flawed land-use policy, characterised by the absence of genuine land reforms, has worsened the accumulation of land in the hands of a privileged dominant-caste minority. Additionally, policies have led to the appropriation of common grazing lands and watering sources. This includes no-graze forest policies despite the inclusion of grazing rights in the Forest Rights Act of 2006. These factors have significantly limited the ability of rural citizens, who don’t own land, to engage in animal rearing.
  • A highly capital-intensive and industrial system of green revolution agriculture, which is the predominant mode of farming today, has led to the scarcity of fodder. This is due to practices such as monocropping with poor or no crop-residue, replacing diverse cereals, legumes, and oilseed crops that previously provided varied crop-residues for animal feed. Furthermore, the extensive use of combined harvesters on paddy and wheat fields have resulted in nearly 50% of the potential crop residue left standing on the field, which is then burnt to prepare the land for the next crop. Additionally, the extensive use of weedicides and herbicides has decimated the availability of natural grasses, herbs, creepers as animal fodder.
  • The capitalisation of Indian animal farming, coupled with volatile global markets, throws out millions of caste-oppressed small producers and their animals from their animal farming livelihoods. Every market collapse, something that has become endemic to globally interlinked livestock products trade regimes, impacts the marginal and small farmers. This export-driven livestock production framework severely impacts these small producers who continue to depend on animals as a source of livelihood and nutritional security.
  • The draft Bill, which proactively promotes the export of animal genetic resources from India, violates the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006. The rules of the Biological Diversity Act, notified in 2004, lays out under Section 22 (7) that local Biodiversity Management Committees have to be consulted on matters concerning the approval of use of biological resources that are located in their jurisdiction. Furthermore, under Section 16 (1), the National Biodiversity Authority can prohibit access and use of biological resources if it is an endemic/rare species or if its use will adversely affect the livelihoods of local communities.

The impact on caste-oppressed communities

An overwhelming majority of India’s indigenous animal breeds are bred and reared by the adivasis and caste-oppressed Vimukta Jatis (Denotified Tribes/ Semi-nomadic Tribes/ Nomadic Tribes), Other Backward Classes, and Dalit communities.

The Aseel poultry, frequently referred to as the mother of all poultry breeds worldwide, is bred across generations by the Konda Reddy and Koya adivasis of the Eastern ghats. Similarly, the Kadaknath, an Indian breed of chicken, is reared by the adivasis of Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh;  the Gir cattle and Jaffarbadi buffalo are reared by the Rebaris of the Gir forest; the black wooled Deccani sheep is bred by the Dhangars, Kurumas and Kurubas covering the vast deccan plateau encompassing Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka up to the northern reaches of Tamil Nadu. Likewise camels are essential to the Raika community of Rajasthan.

Every ‘recognised’ and ‘unrecognised’ breed reflects an intrinsic and complex relationship between the animal and the people who have been breeding those animals over centuries. This Bill undermines the rights of these keepers of animal resources, who rear their animals with love, joy, care, and an economic purpose, which may be destroyed by the export-oriented approach to animal farming.

The Bill also reveals the government’s stand on beef.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has criminalised beef and outlawed cattle slaughter whenever it has come to power. And yet, it is willing to export beef. This is evident from section 2 (f) of the Bill which defines livestock products as meat and meat products of all kinds including fresh, chilled and frozen meat, tissue and organs of bovines.

The inclusion of bovines raises questions whether the government is trying to legalise slaughter for export, but at the time, it’s considered illegal domestically.

Is this a convenient way for the government to make huge profits from beef, which is India’s largest byproduct of the dairy industry, where cattle contribute 48% of the total annual milk produced? Is this a way for the government to strategically remove beef from the domestic platter via its anti-slaughter laws, and thereby compromise the nutritional security of one in every 13th Indian?

The export framework of livestock development, which this Bill, now withdrawn, aimed to legalise, would have posed a huge threat to the rich, yet rapidly diminishing diverse livestock wealth of the country, as also to the livelihoods of millions of caste-oppressed citizens who depend on these livestock for their livelihoods.

Sagari R. Ramdas is a veterinary scientist associated with the Food Sovereignty Alliance, India. She can be reached at sagari.ramdas@gmail.com.

Mumbai Police Prohibit Transportation of Cattle to Curb Spread of Lumpy Skin Disease

The transportation of any kind of fodder, grass or equipment which came in contact with lumpy skin disease-affected bovine animals was also prohibited.

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police have prohibited the transportation of cattle in the city in order to prevent the spread of lumpy skin disease.

The police issued an order to this effect on September 14 and it will remain in force till October 13, an official said on September 18.

Anybody found violating the order will be penalised, he said.

The area under the Mumbai Police commissioner is declared as “controlled area” for lumpy skin disease, the order said.

‘It is forbidden to bring cattle out of the places where they are being raised. There is a prohibition on transporting bovine animals to market places or exhibition centres,’ the order said.

Besides cattle, the transportation of any kind of fodder, grass or equipment which came in contact with the lumpy skin disease-affected bovine animals is prohibited, it said.

The lumpy skin disease is a contagious viral disease that affects cattle and causes fever, nodules on the skin and can also lead to death.

Thousands of cattle have died due to the disease in more than eight states including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra.

(PTI)

Bihar: Man Lynched on Suspicion of Stealing Cattle

The incident took place on August 1 and made news after videos began to be circulated.

New Delhi: A man was lynched by a mob on suspicion of cattle theft at Chakhabib village of Bihar’s Samastipur district. The incident took place on August 1 and made news after videos began to be circulated.

Hindustan Times reported police as having identified the victim as Mohammad Mustaqim, a resident of Begusarai.

While Mustaqim died during treatment, three other men accompanying him fled, according to the report.

The Telegraph has reported that the four had apparently attempted to steal a bullock from the house of a farmer, but were caught in the act. This report notes that there were two others with Mustaqim – and not three. After his accomplices fled, several villagers, kicked, punched and hit him with sticks and bricks, the report says.

Police arrived at the scene afterwards and took the dead body from the spot and sent it to the Sadar Hospital for post-mortem, reported Prabhat Khabar.

An FIR has been registered in which three people have been named and around 50-60 people are unidentified accused, Vibhutipur station house officer Chandrakant Gauri told The Telegraph.

HT has reported that in the video which was circulated on social media, Mustaqim is heard pleading with the villagers and saying that he had no reason to steal cattle.

Issue-Based Politics Has Trumped Communalism in UP – For Now

Livelihood issues took precedence despite the BJP’s attempts to polarise the electorate. While this year’s campaign was unlike the preceding one in 2017, will results also reflect this change?

New Delhi: While it may not be possible to accurately predict which party will form the government in Uttar Pradesh, one thing is clear: this election was all about livelihood issues. The 2022 assembly elections were, by no stretch of the imagination, like the preceding one in 2017.

Call it job distress, fatigue or anti-incumbency sentiment, the “Modi wave” which was evident in 2017 was not much of a force this time. Instead, the contest was centred around the chief minister Yogi Adtiyanath and his primary challenger, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.

In a communally sensitive state like UP, several attempts to polarise voters on religious lines were made. But provocative statements like “abba jaan” and “80 vs 20” by none other than Adityanath seemed to find little or no traction among people.

The communal rhetoric was ramped up and calls for “Hindu unity” were made in several districts but got largely overlooked by more-pertinent issues like unemployment, agrarian distress, health and education infrastructure in rural areas.

The devastation caused by COVID-19, widespread protests by unemployed youth and the farmers’ anger over the three farm laws too contributed to this shift in conversation. 

The focus on the state’s poor economic parameters in the run-up to the polls can be partly credited to farmer leader Rakesh Tikait’s call for Hindus and Muslims to unite in a farmers’ mahapanchayat in Western UP. This kickstarted the process of communal harmony in the region, which spilt over into other regions and gave way to the dominance of livelihood issues in the run-up to the assembly polls.

A resident of Sonbhadra, while pointing out the unclean water issues in Makra village and the subsequent deaths caused by it, said that people are “scared” to drink water.

“Every time we drink water, we hope that we will not die,” he said.

In Ayodhya, there is an ongoing tussle between the administration and small traders whose shops will be demolished for the beautification of the city where a Ram temple is being built.

“During the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, we were the ones who served water, food to the karsevaks. If those people who have honoured Lord Ram are left without livelihoods, why will they vote for the BJP?” Abhay, speaking about the traders who sell puja items asked.

“Many traders, especially smaller ones, are getting disillusioned with the BJP because of the direct attack on their livelihoods,” Nand Kumar Gupta, an SP worker said about the small scale traders in Ayodhya.

“We also want vikas (development) in Ayodhya. We want the Ram Temple, too. But not at the cost of our livelihoods,” said Awdesh Kumar Modanwal, who sells puja items in his century-old shop.

Muslims that The Wire spoke to in several places said that they want to vote for the SP-RLD alliance for one simple reason: it is their only chance to defeat the BJP, which they say has perpetrated widespread violence against the community.

A girl looks at posters of the Samajwadi Party. Photo: Ismat Ara/The Wire

People’s issues

This correspondent spent about a month in Uttar Pradesh during the elections. Issues faced by people largely centred on unemployment, stray cattle, roads, unclean water and road access – from West UP to East.

Towards the end of the election campaign, none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself brought up the problem of stray cattle in a speech, even as he went on to pivot the BJP’s initial majoritarian campaign towards the Union government’s free ration scheme for the poor.

Several farmers that The Wire interacted with said that their lives had become tough because of the stray cattle menace. Shanti, a farmer in Raebareli, had lost her husband to illness. Three months after his death, her crop was destroyed by stray cattle, pushing her further into misery. 

“This will be a difficult year,” she said, adding that she has two daughters and no source of income. 

Women as separate vote bank?

Sometimes, getting people, especially women in rural belts to express themselves is a big challenge. This time too, it was difficult to understand the women voters’ preferences clearly.

There is either an inability or reluctance to articulate their demands. All they will tell you is that free ration is great but their sons and husbands do not have jobs.

In a Dalit basti in Amethi, women were either unconcerned with party politics or simply voted for the same symbol as their fellow villagers.

It seems unlikely that women will emerge as a separate vote bank, like in Bihar or West Bengal.

This also means that the Congress’s campaign in UP, centred around women, may only have limited results in the 2022 polls.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s “Ladki hoon, Lad Sakti hoon” (I am a girl, I can fight) was an attempt to give voice to the issues of women but there is no evidence to suggest that they will vote differently from male members of their communities.

Women with the Congress flag. Photo: Ismat Ara/The Wire

Most of the women expressed satisfaction with the free ration, which doubled in 6 months, and it seemed as if the free ration by the ruling party was breaking the caste and class barriers and empowering the backward communities.

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing job losses and hefty medical bills for many, the free ration was the only silver lining for many families.

One woman in Mirzapur, employed in the small-scale beedi industry, said that when all work activities were stopped during the lockdown, “it was the free ration that sustained” her family.

“It was like a saviour…we didn’t have to beg, at least for basic food” she added.

However, in other places like Sonbhadra, this correspondent also encountered rural people complaining about the quality of the salt and grains distributed by the government.

In other government schemes such as the CM’s housing programme, there was a clear divide between beneficiaries and others. In Mirzapur’s Matawar region, for instance, hardly a hundred people – out of thousands who are eligible – were living in houses under the scheme.

Most toilets constructed in the village under the Swach Bharat Abhiyan (Pradhan Mantri Sauchalay Yojana) had broken down shortly after they were constructed or had never been completed.

People at a BJP rally. Photo: Ismat Ara/The Wire

Will issues triumph over communalism?

The impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs across districts, widespread issues of stray cattle, flooding, unclean drinking water, demands of farmers, poor infrastructure in rural belts including roads, medical facilities and higher education institutions are important issues.

The MSMEs include the lock industry in Aligarh, small traders of puja items in Ayodhya, carpet and brass industries in Mirzapur. 

The Samajwadi Party’s campaign centred around people’s livelihood issues was successful in cornering the religious polarisation that the BJP sought to stoke. 

Friday’s results are a litmus test of which political narrative attracted the electorate the most.

Watch | Sitapur: ‘Stray Cattle Causing Huge Problems for Farmers’

The Wire was in Sitapur to understand the trends and issues ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

The people of Sitapur are struggling with the problem of stray animals and farmers are forced to monitor their fields day and night. How much impact will the issue of stray animals have in this Uttar Pradesh assembly election? And what are the other issues? Watch this report by The Wire‘s Arfa Khanum Sherwani.

Tripura ‘Cattle Theft’ Lynching: High Court Denies Pre-Arrest Bail to Accused

As per the statements of some of the witnesses, the bail applicant was found to be a part of the mob that allegedly murdered Saiful Islam on June 20. On that day, two other men were also killed.

New Delhi: The Tripura high court last week denied pre-arrest bail to a man who was allegedly a part of a mob that lynched an 18-year-old boy, Saiful Islam, on the suspicion that he had stolen cattle, LiveLaw reported.

A bench of Justice S.G. Chattopadhyay denied pre-arrest bail to one Gagan Debbarma, saying that the boy was lynched by the mob, accusing him of being a cattle lifter, even though no cattle were found in his possession.

According to the report, the officer in charge of Mungiakami police station, Khowai, on June 20 came to know that the Saiful along with his associates had stolen cattle.

The Wire had reported that along with Saiful, two others — Zayed Hussein (28) and Billal Miah (30) — were also allegedly lynched by the mob, which accused them of cattle smuggling. The villagers of Namanjoypara allegedly saw the trio ‘fleeing’ with the cattle and detained them. They thrashed Zayed and Billal, while Saiful managed to flee.

Saiful was caught at Sovaram Chow Para and was brutally attacked by a mob.

They were taken to the Govind Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital at Agartala, where they were declared brought dead.

The report further said that two separate cases — for cattle smuggling and mob lynching — were filed at Champahower and Kayanpur police stations.

Podcast: More Worrying Than Changing the Names of Cities Are the Lynchings of Minorities

On July 3, the police arrested one Ripon Debbarma of Uttar Maharanipur under the Teliamura police station in connection with the incident. The police had also refused to give any details on the arrest in the interest of the investigation, a local report said.

The regional Tripura People’s Party had alleged that a fourth man was also attacked and went missing, another The Wire report said.

During the course of the investigation, as per the statements of some of the witnesses, the bail applicant, Debbarma, was found to be a part of the mob that allegedly murdered Saiful. Thus, he was booked for the offence punishable under sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 302 r/w section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

As per the LiveLaw report, the counsel of the accused in the bail plea argued that he was not named in the first information report as an accused. He further said that no prima facie case of the charge of murder had been made out against him. Therefore, there was no justifiable reason for his arrest and detention.

On the other hand, the public prosecutor for the state argued that the statements of the eyewitnesses had revealed the name of the “accused petitioner” as one of the members of the mob who were found chasing Saiful and allegedly murdering him.

Therefore, taking into account the gravity of the offence and the aforementioned facts, the court denied the benefit of anticipatory bail to the applicant.

The Cow Was Not Domesticated With the Idea That There Is Divinity in It

The cow is unreservedly used for profit – keeping her pregnant (in succession) only to steal her lactational secretions.

Kharwas, a pudding made from the colostrum of cows, is, or should be, a nation-defining artefact. It’s a sort of steam-cooked, coagulated, first milk dhokla: an amuse-bouche that’s very slightly, lactically sweet, dressed in a negligee of saffron, that starts off smelling of the insides of the udder and the saliva of the new-born calf, and then gives off on the palate the corrupting flavours of the fruits of rapine, of the taking of something precious that isn’t rightfully yours.

Colostrum is the foremilk of a mammal, the slightly yellowish first milk produced after birthing a new-born. It is an evolutionary product for the nourishment of the infant, a rich, creamy elixir that is the coalition of lipids and lactoferrin and immune cells and signalling peptides that give natural immunity to the new-born calf, which it must receive within six hours of life. For there is no transfer of immunity from the placenta in the cow.

Article 48 of the constitution of India makes it a duty of the state, while making laws, to organise animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines, and in particular, to preserve, protect and improve the stock of the exalted Mother-Goddess Bos indicus and her male companions and offspring. The other half of the same article exhorts the state to legislate against its slaughter. In the constituent assembly debates, it’s clear that the insertion of the article and its phrasing is made to look like it had little to do with the avowed sacredness of the cow and everything to do with her inguinal teats and lactational biology. And draft animal power for her kindred males (the tractor was unknown then).

A farmer uses cattle to till his land. Photo: Ananth BS/Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0

What was invoked was the secular and economic ‘use-value’ of cattle in a predominantly agrarian economy. There were calls from a few members of the constituent assembly to install an article banning cow slaughter in the fundamental rights of the constitution, which would have given the cow a distinctive constitutional protection, but it was on Ambedkar’s leaning on the fulcrum that the article was inserted as a directive principle of state policy (not enforceable by any court) and not as a fundamental right. Even so, at least two Muslim members felt that getting the article in was a double move – of slaking Hindu sentiment while seemingly not doing so by using the whole economic ‘use-value’ argument.

In 2016-17, the secretions of lactating bovines in India crossed 165 million tonnes. That’s more than three times the milk produced in China and about a fifth of the milk in the world. Milk has become the motherland’s no. 1 agricultural produce. For the first time in the history of the republic, the value of milk produced exceeded the total value of food grains i.e. cereals plus pulses. At Rs 6 lakh crore, milk alone, officially, contributes one fifth of agricultural GDP by value. The milch animal population of India is a little over 13.5 crore. As the number of teats in an animal vary by mammalian species to correspond to the size of the average litter for that animal, at four teats to the female adult bovine, that explains the 50 crore milk drinkers of our country. In our multitudes, every day, we are drinking a secretion which has the only evolutionary purpose of turning a 65-pound calf into a 400-pound cow as soon as possible.

Like all animals, cows raised for milk need to be pregnant in order to produce milk. The optimal lactation period for Indian breeds is about 260 days. Within three months of giving birth, the cow is made pregnant again. That means they’re pregnant and lactating for at least seven months a year. And then, pulling on the plasticity of bovine reproductive function, they’re made to calf once a year for maximum profit. So that we could drink the milk that was intended for the calf, which is only allowed a bit of a suckle every time to make the teat erect for milking and for the ‘let-down’ reflex. Then it is separated but kept in sight.

To make plain the meaning of the constitutional phrase ‘improvement of stock along scientific lines’ aka nasal sudhar would call for disclosure of something mildly scandalous to those not familiar with dairying practices. This isn’t really meant as an expectorant for your loathing, but as anyone from the field of animal husbandry will tell you – if you wish to maintain your piety for the cow or your appetite for her produce, you’ll be well-advised not to be present while they’re being impregnated or milked.

The most inexpensive way of impregnating a cow is by artificial insemination (AI). A straw of semen costs anywhere between Rs 30 to 200 depending on the breed of the bull and the yield of its mother. The AI ‘worker’ is an itinerant technician who arrives on a motorcycle with a briefcase (that has his kit) and a thermos flask (that has a bunch of semen straws in liquid nitrogen). It starts with the immobilisation of the cow in a frame that PETA calls a rape rack. The other way is just tying the hind legs to each other and four people restraining the animal with a series of chains and ropes. The AI worker puts on a plastic glove all the way to the left shoulder and shoves his left arm into the rectum of the cow. The rectum in cows is a thin walled, pliant tube directly above the vagina. The left-hand inside is meant to use the rectum as a sleeve to hold and manipulate the underlying cervix while a steel AI gun loaded with the straw is blindly pushed into the vagina and then onwards through the cervix into the uterus to make the deposit. Notwithstanding the Rabelaisian flow of the procedure, AI is an incredibly efficient way of getting a cow pregnant. Whether it qualifies as sexual assault of the cow I shall leave till you’ve seen the YouTube tutorial. In 2017-18, the Department of Animal Husbandry of the Ministry of Agriculture had an ambitious target of 100 million AIs. It could only manage 26 million. It laid the blame on the worker who averaged just 1.92 inseminations a day against a target of five.

All nasal sudhar is to increase the milk yield. To bring it as close to the 25 litres a day produced by the eminently instagrammable Holstein Friesians (HF) and the Jerseys. So, the more expensive semen is that belonging to the crossbred HF-Gir and HF Sahiwal, engineered to double the productivity of the non-descript, desi, poor milchers, to make their udders shapelier and more resistant to mastitis. But the most expensive semen (at 2000 rupees a straw), the one that’s about to bring forth the true revolution, is the sexed semen. It’s a truism that the biggest problem of the dairy sector is the male calf, considered a waste product. A sperm cell sorting technology is being used to isolate gender skewed sperm that promises a 90% success at producing female calves. It seems ‘only cows’ is how we’re set to meet our national goal of 300 million tonnes of annual milk production by 2024.

A man milking a cow. Photo: Matthew Stevens/Flickr CC BY NC ND 2.0

From thence would arise the question of whether the cow is a person or a thing? Or a sentient non-person? Is this nomination based on policy, theology, biology? Would the pious allow the cow to be entitled to the rights and protections afforded by the writ of habeas corpus?

It’s entirely possible that the founding fathers of our constitution had a sense of humour, that article 48 was indeed a double move, written in the format of a parable, with an inbuilt irony and ambivalence, hoping that the zoosadism of ‘improvement of stock’ along scientific lines will provide the orthogonal view to the worship of the cow. That she cannot be the sacred embodiment of Kamdhenu. That ‘33 crore Gods in her anatomy’ was a caricatured form, a special subdivision of fiction that has done terrific damage to Hindu intelligence.

That she’s not a Mother-Goddess, not even a person. To unreservedly use the cow for profit would mean being sane, secular, realistic. And smart enough to realize that we did not, do not domesticate the cow with the idea that there is divinity in it, but to satisfy human needs and aesthetic values and the economy.

It’s not the farmers who are quaveringly pious about the cow. For what god-fearing piety will allow the breeding of a mother goddess to keep her pregnant (in succession) only to steal her lactational secretions for profit. And then send her to a milking competition. And call her inviolable.

Ambarish Satwik is a Delhi based vascular surgeon and writer. His debut novel Perineum: Nether Parts of the Empire, a rogue sexual history of the British Raj, was published in 2007 by Penguin.

This article was first published by BusinessLine in 2018 and is republished here with the author’s permission.

Cow Vigilantes Have ‘Scope to Work’ Under Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill: Karnataka Deputy CM

Ashwath Narayan’s statement has raised fears the new Bill could be used to legitimise the violent vigilante campaign against persons involved in cattle trade.

New Delhi: Days after the BJP-led government in Karnataka passed the stringent Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill, 2020, the state’s deputy chief minister said that cow vigilantes would have “a scope to work in this provision”, raising fears that the new law could be used to legitimise violence by self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks‘ against members of minorty communities involved in trading cattle.

“Earlier, life was at risk for vigilantes… not those who were in the (cattle) trade,” C.N. Ashwath Narayan reportedly told NDTV. when asked about concerns that the new anti-cow slaughter Bill will protect ‘gau rakshaks’.

The new Bill reportedly seeks to protect “persons acting in good faith” to prevent cow slaughter from legal action. Under the Bill, no suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall be initiated against the competent authority or any person exercising powers under this legislation in “good faith”.

“Vigilantes or anyone who is working for a cause and the law of the land should definitely have a scope to work in this provision,” Narayan said.

He also claimed that in Karnataka, “it is only the cow vigilantes who have lost their lives” and that persons in the cattle trade “were completely armed”. “They [cattle traders] were taking lives and killing people. It is not the vigilantes,” Narayan claimed.

However, as Sukanya Shantha of The Wire has reported, the state has a long history of a violent vigilante campaign against the consumption of beef. For the past 15 years, there have been many instances of vigilante groups attacking and killing people involved in the trade.

The Bill, which was adopted by the state assembly on Wednesday seeks a total ban on the slaughter of all cattle and buffaloes below 13 years of age. The Bill also imposes a stringent punishment upon violation of the legislation including imprisonment between three years and seven years with a fine not less than Rs 50,000 per cattle and may be extended up to Rs 7 lakh. The interstate transportation of cattle will also be banned without prior permission from competent authorities.

Also Read: Whatever the BJP May Say, the Cost of ‘Protecting’ Cows Is High

Additionally, the Bill makes selling the cattle for slaughtering or intentionally killing the cattle an offence and if convicted, the court can forfeit the accused’s confiscated cattle, vehicle, premises, and material on behalf of the state government. Police officers will also be allowed to visit premises where ‘suspicious slaughtering’ is taking place, under the Bill, and will be allowed to seize the cattle.

The Bill, which faced strong criticism from opposition parties Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), has drawn flak from former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy who said that it could be “politically misused”.

“There is a fear that the provision to allow police and other officials to inspect the dairy premises may lead to the officials harassing farmers and creating fear psychosis,” Kumaraswamy said.

Concerns have also been raised by meat traders and sellers in Goa, who claim that the new Bill will affect the tourism state’s beef supply.

Protesting farmers in Bengaluru also expressed concerns over the anti-cow slaughter Bill. “It is common for farmers to sell a cow or buffalo when it stops producing milk. We will look after them but we want the government to introduce an insurance scheme for cattle so when the cattle dies we will be compensated,” Kodihalli Chandrashekar, the President of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, a pro-farmer organisation, said.

Demands for similar anti-cow slaughter legislation were also raised in neighbouring Telangana by BJP national leader P. Muralidhar Rao.

Rajasthan: No Cattle Fair This Year, Camel Owners Worst Hit

COVID-19 alone is not responsible for wrecking the livelihood of camel owners in the state.

Jaipur: “Either leave these camels or leave us,” Bhooralal’s family has been telling him for some time now.

Bhooralal, a resident of Sadri municipality in Rajasthan’s Pali district, owns about 50 camels. From the Rebari caste, he has seen and subsequently adopted the traditional livelihood of rearing camels, in the absence of any alternative income.

However, the camels that supported him financially for all these years have now become a liability. Other than using their milk for making tea at home these days, they are rendered useless for Bhooralal.

“Forget earning through them, I’m forced to pay from my own pocket to feed them,” he says.

Camel herders resting.

Bhooralal explains that rearing camels is an expensive affair. “A camel is a huge animal. Milking and herding them requires at least three people, who obviously doesn’t work for free,” he says.

Cattle owners primarily belong to nomadic tribes seen as “lower castes” under the rigid Indian caste system. Bhooralal says that if his camels mistakenly enter someone’s field in the village, the matter escalates into caste violence.

“We are extremely careful while herding a group of camels, but even if one of them gets away without our notice and causes any damage to other people’s crops, days and weeks go into resolving the matter,” he adds.

A significant part of camel owners’ income came from exporting the young male calves at ten state-level cattle fairs held every year – Ram Devaji cattle fair in Nagaur, Shiv Ratri cattle fair in Karauli, Mallinathji cattle fair in Tilwara, Baldevaji cattle fair in Merta city, Mela Baishakh gaumatisagar in Jhalarapatan, Tejaji cattle fair in Parbatsar, Gogamedi cattle fair in Gogamedi, Jaswant exhibition and cattle fair in Bharatpur, Pushkar cattle fair in Pushkar and Mela Kartik Chandra Bhaga in Jhalrapatan.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no cattle fairs were organised this year. But COVID-19 alone is not responsible for wrecking the livelihood of camel owners in the state. Their incomes were already facing a massive dip because of a legislature brought by the Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in 2015, a year after declaring the camel to be the ‘state animal’.

The law, Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 2015 which was meant to address the dwindling number of camels in the state, prohibited slaughter, unauthorised transportation and trade of camels.

As a result, the sale of camels drastically declined, discouraging owners from continuing to rear camels.

Also read: India’s Livestock Export Potential Can’t Be Realised Till We Eradicate Foot-and-Mouth Disease

For instance, as per the animal husbandry department, the arrival of animals in the state livestock fairs has fallen by 63% between 2012-13 and 2017-18. Due to this, the cumulative income of cattle owners in 2017-18 declined to Rs 24.20 crore from Rs 73.01 crore in 2012-13, and the state income (tolls, fees and fair tax charged by the government) dropped to Rs 1.04 lakh from Rs 7 lakh in the corresponding years.

The rate of a young camel calf has fallen from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,500-5,000.

To support camel owners, the government initiated a scheme in 2016 to provide monetary support of Rs 10,000 to camel herders for every newborn calf, in three instalments over the course of 18 months. However, several herders whom The Wire spoke to said they have barely received Rs 2,000.

Apart from earning by selling the young calves, the owners also deal in camel milk. However, this service too has been hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Camels owners have to employ multiple herders to take camels grazing.

Since there is no proper dairy system for camel milk in Rajasthan, the owners used to transport the milk to Jodhpur from where it would be further exported or transported to rest of the states in the country.

“Every day, the collected milk is sent to Jodhpur in pick-up vans for further dispatch. Camel milk is believed to be beneficial for curbing certain diseases, which is why it remains in demand,” said Rakesh Dewasi, a camel owner from Khundawas village in Pali district.

The owners say that the demand for camel milk has also reduced this year. “I used to sell 20 litres of milk earlier but now it is difficult to sell even five litres,” said Bhooralal.

The camel owners also say that successive governments, from the Congress and the Bhartiya Janta Party, leave no opportunity to contribute funds for cows, but never consider the same for camels.

“What is our fault if camels cannot be politicised like cows?” says Bhooralal. “The government has made the camel the state animal and penalised trading, but there has been absolutely no provision to support camel rearers,” he adds.

Hanwant Singh of the Lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan, an organisation working in the interests of camel owners in Rajasthan, has been raising his voice against the camel Act.

“In a meeting held this month, we have reiterated our demand to amend the Act,” Singh told The Wire. “It primarily includes opening up of camel export, inclusion of camel milk in the mid-day milk scheme, opening the national forests and other forest areas for grazing of camels and gives the responsibilities of the district magistrate enshrined in the Act to sub-divisional officers.”

Speaking to The Wire, director of the animal husbandry department in Rajasthan Virendra Meena said, “We have already proposed to amend the camel Act and it is put before the designated committee.”

On discontinuing the scheme under which camel owners were given Rs 10,000 on the birth of every calf, Meena said, “It had a significant share of Central government funding and it was first discontinued by them, following which even we had to withdraw.”

He also added that since no cattle fair could be organised this year, the department is looking to arrange a meeting with the concerned stakeholders to plan the future course of action.

Karnataka Minister Says Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill to Be Introduced in Winter Session

The BJP in its manifesto ahead of the 2018 assembly election had promised prohibition of cow slaughter.

Bengaluru:  Karnataka Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan on Tuesday said that the anti-cow slaughter bill will be introduced during the winter session of the state legislature starting from December 7, 2020.

“It has been a desire to implement anti-cow slaughter law in Karnataka since I took over the responsibility of this ministry and the time for it has come now,” Chavan said in a release.

Stating that he has held discussions with the Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on this, the Minister said during the legislative session, the anti-cow slaughter bill will be tabled and necessary preparations have been made in the matter.

Also read: Shivraj Singh Chouhan Announces Setting Up of ‘Gau Cabinet’ in Madhya Pradesh

“Similar acts implemented in other states have been studied and deliberations have taken place in this regard with officials and experts about further strengthening it in our state compared to others.

In the future cow slaughter will be banned in the state and also its sale or purchase of beef both from within and outside the state,” he added.

According to the release, Chavan said, if the law is enacted, along with a prohibition on slaughter, sale and use of beef, illegal transportation of animals for slaughtering will be stopped.

The BJP in its manifesto ahead of the 2018 assembly election had promised prohibition of cow slaughter.

Despite resistance from the opposition, the then BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa in 2010 had got the controversial Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill passed that proposed to replace the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964.

Also read: UP’s Anti-Cow Slaughter Law Is Being Misused: Allahabad High Court

The bill had widened the definition of ”cattle” and imposed a blanket ban on cattle slaughter, coupled with stringent penalty clauses for violation.

However, the Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah that came to power in 2013, withdrew the bill that was before the President for his assent.

After the BJP came back to power in the state, several party leaders have been making a pitch to re-enact the anti-cow slaughter law.

The Minister said Karnataka Animal Welfare Board in the state is empowered to prevent any form of animal right violations.