Ahmedabad Mirror: Ahmedabad: Saturday, September 01, 2018.
Gujarat
formulated the harshest law against cow slaughter in the country, with the
maximum punishment being life imprisonment and Rs 5-lakh fine. This would fool
anyone into thinking that the BJP government, which espouses the cause of
jeevdaya, is serious about saving the gau mata whom it eulogises as ‘rashtra
mata’. And yet, the State government has NO record of cows dying due of
unnatural causes.
In
response to Mirror’s RTI query, the State government replied it has no clue if
cows are dying of plastic consumption and malnutrition. This, even as thousands
of cows roam the streets eating discarded plastic bags and non-biodegradable
waste. Dr BJ Parmar, Joint Director of Animal Husbandry Department and Member
Secretary of the Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board told Mirror, “There is no policy
to report unnatural deaths of cows. The real cause of death can only be found
by conducting a postmortem examination of cows.
This
is not carried out all the time.” The government reply to Mirror’s RTI query
revealed that only 14 cows had died of plastic consumption across the entire
state in the last six years. Gir- Somnath district reported 13 deaths and Dangs
reported one death. Veterinary centres in 20 districts said no cows had died in
this period while seven districts admitted they had no data regarding the same.
Plastic,
malnutrition linked
However,
animal rescue activists and veterinarians refute the numbers. They say there
are far more cows dying due to consumption of plastic. Early this week, animal
welfare activists slammed Jamnagar Municipal Corporation for the death of 288
bovines that had been impounded from the roads and kept in cattle pound over
the past 10 months. They claimed that the animals died mainly due to lack of
fodder and improper facilities.
A
charge that the corporation denied. Experts said that policy for reportage of
both death by plastic and malnutrition are very important because the latter is
often caused by the former. Dr Jignesh Vadalia, HOD of Veterinary Surgery at
College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry of the Junagadh Agricultural
University confirmed, “Almost 90 per cent of cows in urban areas are sure to be
plastic-positive. We have removed plastic clots ranging from 5 kg to 90 kg from
animals all over Gujarat.”
Asked
about how much plastic is usually found, Dalit activist Natu Parmar said, “On
an average, about 70- 80 kg of stomach contents wrapped in plastic knots are
found in cows and bulls from municipal areas (cities). If anyone says this is
untrue, we can give them proof from any corner of Gujarat.” Speaking of what
happens to cows when they feed on plastic, Dr Vadalia said, “Plastic is not
excreted. It keeps getting accumulated inside, due to which the animal cannot
ruminate fodder.
This
leads to malnutrition. The animal gets progressively weak and will die if not
treated in time.” Natu Parmar, who is a former cowskinner, told Mirror, “I made
representations to the government several times regarding protection of cows
from plastic. More gauchar land has to be allocated to cows but nothing has
been done.” According to statistics provided by AMC, there are more than 45,000
cows roaming the streets of Ahmedabad. The Gujarat High Court had directed the
AMC to solve this problem in March, and the Corporation has finally got
cracking on it.
Govt
least concerned
However,
despite repeated warnings from activists, cow deaths due to consumption of
plastic go unreported. Officials at the Gauseva and Gauchar Vikas Board seem to
be least concerned about not having basic data on hand to assess welfare of
cows in State. Former Board chairman Dr Vallabh Kathiriya, whose term ended in
December 2017, said that although cows, bulls and calves are left to eat plastic
in the cities by owners, not all of them die due to plastic.
When
asked how he could say so without any kind of statistics available, Dr
Kathiriya said, “We don’t have numbers but that sort of thing, reporting
deaths, is not implemented anywhere. Cows don’t always immediately die due to
eating plastic, it takes many years for that to happen.” He added, “People who
run gaushalas tell me that only 15 out of 500 cows die per year due to plastic.
This is not a big number. Also, mostly, it is bulls that eat plastic and roam
the roads.” Interestingly, the position of Chairman of Gauseva and Gauchar
Vikas Board has been vacant for the past 8 months since Dr Kathiriya’s term
ended.
We
don’t have numbers but reporting of deaths is not implemented anywhere. Cows
don’t always immediately die due to eating plastic-Vallabh Kathiriya, ex-Gau
Seva Board chairman
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