Tha hazards of 'cow protection'

 (via Rajiv Tyagi)

From last year...

My driver Manoj, is a farmer who owns about 12 acres of land, along with his brother, in a village 25 km from my house and keeps two milch cows at home, which are tended to by his mother, wife and sister in law. He wakes up at 5, tends to his fields and reports to work thereafter. His younger brother drives for my daughter and son in law and visits home once a month, over a weekend.

Today while driving me somewhere, he told me of a problem that he and his brother villagers are being overwhelmed with. All of them have traditionally kept a cow or two at home, for consumption of milk in the home, any surplus being sold off to the 'doodhiya', who sells the milk to dairies and milk processing plants. Even though the yield of most desi cows is a fraction of a buffalo's, the cow can graze for food, whereas a buffalo requires an organized food chain. They also believe cow milk is better than buffalo milk, for children.

The problem now is, that from taking a cow to a vet, to selling it to another, every bit of cattle transportation has become an exercise fraught with the risk of violence. Old cows cannot be sold off, as the cow's value chain, which ended in its being converted to food, leather, bone meal and gelatin, has been severely disrupted. It is now the received wisdom within his village, to get rid of cows while there is still someone to buy them. The big problem is, no one wants a cow any longer, even for free! The villagers have resorted to leaving their cows at considerable distances from their homes. But being a grazing animal, cows are adept at finding their way back home; at times with other discarded cows in tow!

The fields around their village are now full of grazing cows no one wants, putting pressure on cropping patterns, as farmers can no longer plant crops that would be edible by cows.

He is desperate to sell off the two cows they have, but is not being able to do so... He wants to buy one buffalo, whose yield will be considerably more than the two cows he currently has. The buffalo also retains its life cycle value chain, ending up as food, leather, bone-meal and gelatin at the end. But he can do that only when he can dispose of the two cows.

Over the short term, to India's good fortune, the Indian cow will cease to be a source of milk. But before that, it will turn into a vermin for India's farmer, like the wild pig, Nilgai antelope and elephant, in some places.

Making laws against abandonment of cows won't work. We still cannot enforce laws against abandonment of wives and parents...

Only a Sanghi can turn an asset into a liability, in no time at all...