It’s being felt that a comprehensive
rehabilitation model may help restore the economic value of stray cows and in
the process address the emotive aspect of their protection. It is to be seen if
state governments will emulate the process.
Abandoned on roads for being
unproductive, scores of stray cows brought to the government cattle ponds
located at villages Burj Powat, Gadolia and Khokhar Kalan in Ludhiana,
Fatehgarh Sahib and Mansa districts of Punjab have resumed yielding milk. This
has led to poor people of the areas approaching the cattle’s caretakers with
the request that they be allowed to take them to their homes with the promise
of looking after them.
The development is
being seen by many in the field as a noticeable opening of a possibility of
their rehabilitation in a scenario where the freely roaming hordes of cows are
largely being considered a menace for humans. A crude line of thought, that
packing them off for slaughtering could be better riddance, brings along risks
of social and communal disharmony.
About 100 cows
out of the total 800 at these three cattle ponds have turned productive with
daily average yield of 100 litres of milk. Of this, about 70 litres is being
sold to households daily and the demand is increasing. Its quality quotient
seems to be the clincher given the presence of adulterated milk in the market.
“So much so, we are being approached daily by poor people offering to take
these cows home with the promise that they will not abandon them,” disclosed
Pawan Kumar, a founding member of the Mansa cattle pond. Similar is the case in
the two cattle ponds in Fatehgarh Sahib and Ludhiana districts which together
are home to over 400 stray cattle, majority being cows.
Both cattle
ponds are being managed by the volunteers of Delhi-based spiritual and
charitable organization Dhyan Foundation (DF) who, on the instructions of their Guru, Yogi Ashwini, volunteered for this service. Notably, the cattle ponds
at both places were in a locked state before the DF offered to run these in
association with administrations of both districts. Over 1500 stray cows, bulls
and calves are being looked after at these three places.
“It’s a new
lease of life for such cows at our cattle pond but it’s at initial stage and
need to be sustained. It could be a wonderful step if they find ways into homes
again. Yes, this model needs to be studied to make it worth replication at a
larger scale but should be tried at local level to start with,” observed
Kanwalpreet Kaur, Deputy Commissioner, Fatehgarh Sahib. Her Mansa district
counterpart, Dharam Pal Gupta, shared her observation saying such a
rehabilitation model could be a trailblazer.
The agreement of
commercial dairy farmers too points to its likely effectiveness. Daljit
Singh Sadarpura, the national and state president of Progressive Dairy Farmers
Association, is not averse to evolving such a model based on experience of
stray cattle management at these three places. “Of course, it’s a doable idea
if the cows are brought back into the breeding cycle but massive efforts at the
government levels are required for this to happen,” he observed. Sadarpura
pointed out that 50 to 60 per cent of such cows are fit for lactation. He ruled
out their commercial viability as this requires minimum yield of 14-15 litre,
which in the case of large dairy farms is average 22-25 litre. But he agreed
that the reported low yield of the cows in these cattle ponds could be useful
in rehabilitating them in the poor households.
Experts believe this could be a workable idea for the state government to
motivate commercial dairy farmers to hand over cows directly to the poor as and
when they find them commercially unviable. It is alleged that a multitude of stray
cows and bulls are abandoned on the roads and public places at this stage. A
senior official of Punjab Animal
Husbandry Department said there were one lakh stray cattle in Punjab as per 2012 census. Cows outnumber
bulls and that is why they are more visible on roads. The current census is
going on.
Developing a
proper rehabilitation model can lead to optimum capacity utilization of these
cattle ponds as well as those in other districts of the state. The Punjabgovernment had, over two years ago,
constructed cattle ponds each costing nearly Rs one crore on village lands in
every district. But these remained non-operational as no animal welfare
organisation came forward to take responsibility of managing these mainly due
to their location away from urban centres and lack of funds.
But things got
going after DF took the initiative in Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib districts
and Varinder Kumar Sharma, the then Deputy Commissioner of Mansa district. The
DF also voluntarily contributed funds for Mansa during initial financial
crunch. There is an increasing realisation that the incumbent state government
should actively help out in resource mobilization by way of ensuring community
participation to make all the cattle ponds work at optimum levels.
It is an
accepted fact that such places cannot thrive without active participation of
the area community. It is seen that due to this factor, gaushalas being run in
urban centres are financially more resourceful. But these gaushalas do not
accept stray ones because milk-yielding cows are financially useful. “The poor
wanting to take home these productive stray cows due to their economic value is
a new form of community participation that should be seriously thought about if
the governments want to tackle the problem of wandering cattle. Their
rehabilitation in the poor households offers a more constructive solution,”
opined Mohit Sharma, a DF volunteer.
Being
shelter-less, the cows that move around are prone to accidents resulting in
human and animal deaths. In 2016, 1.23 percent of total road accidents in India
were attributed to stray animals and 5 to 7 percent in Punjab, mostly in its Malwa region mainly due
to single roads and unrestricted access for animals, said Dr Kamal Soi, member,
National Road Safety Council.
Accident
prevention too calls for ways to reduce chances of stray cattle being let out
to fend for themselves. The charge that these innocent beings cause accidents
is absurd to the core because it is us who have forced them on to roads. Since
the process of commercial dairy farming cannot be reversed, ways have to be
found for their rehabilitation by involving all stake holders including dairy
farmers. This initiative has to be taken at the governments’ levels, argue
animal activists.
Those behind the
idea hold that besides restoring economic status of cows, the problem of bulls,
now of only nuisance value due to highly mechanized farming practices, too can
be resolved by resorting to selective breeding. Their unwanted propagation can
be checked by employing available ‘sexed semen’ besides castration when they
are 6 to 8 months old. “The insemination technology ensures birth of female
calves with 10 to 12 percent error margin. Our state government has been
importing filtered semen straws for the purpose,” informed Dr Surjit Singh
Makkar, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, Mansa.
But all this
does not negate the need of healthy bulls. The available embryo transfer
technology is there to take care of their propagation for breeding purpose.
Does this small experience at these cattle ponds call for its serious
examination and pave the way for evolving a model of restoring the economic
value and consequent rehabilitation of such stray cows elsewhere in Punjab and the country to reduce the
incidence of hazards posed by their presence in public places and roads? It’s
hoped that governments will wake up to this issue.
Article was published in TehelkaMagazine
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