The Cows

The Cows. One of the first things one notices in India is the omnipresent cow.  And really by cow I am also referring to cows, bulls, water buffalo (here they just call them buffalo), and yaks (technically, bovines, but you get the point).  Cows are everywhere.  In the streets, in the parks, on the bridges, in the fields.  Sometimes they have owners, many times they do not.  You just have to get comfortable with them being everywhere.

But Pete, why are cows just roaming the streets?

Good question.  Cows (but not bulls, water buffalo or yaks) are sacred in the Hindu religion.  So cow slaughter is mostly illegal in the country.  India actually is one of the world’s top exporters of beef, but it is primarily from buffalo.  In the past, while cow slaughter was technically illegal, enforcement was minimal, and entrepreneurs would often transport them to jurisdictions that allowed cow slaughter.

What has changed?

The current Indian government (BJP - led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is very proactive in pushing a pro-Hindu agenda. Many state governments, especially in the north, are also BJP.  The BJP has made it a platform position to crack down on illegal slaughterhouses and illegal transport of cows for slaughter.  Not only have states cracked down, but the rhetoric has spurred vigilante citizens to enforce the law - in dozens of cases stopping trucks with cows and subsequently lynching the “cow smugglers.”

So what is a farmer to do?

Once dairy farmers had seen the best years of their milk cows go, they would sell them in the market, usually to someone willing to transport them to slaughter.  Now they just let them go.  I’m not sure what they ever did with the bulls they didn’t use for breeding.  Water buffalo are often used as farm animals, but their days are numbered as more farms switch to tractors and machinery.  So there are a lot of animals wandering about.

Does the government do anything?

State governments subsidize many “cow shelters.”  There are literally thousands of these shelters throughout India, some housing as many as 10,000 cattle, but some as few as a couple hundred.  These cow shelters try to monetize various cow products (cow dung as manure, cow urine as elixir medicine, cow milk, etc.).  I visited one of the bigger cow shelters in Jaipur.  It was a full service cow shelter with dozens of employees.  It even had a 15-bed hospital - no, not for cows, but for people who wanted to be treated with cow products.