Ms Gandhi is right in pointing out that, under the cover of religious duty, many controllers of cow shelters are running them as “semi-dairies”. It has been now generally understood that many shelters make a tidy profit from the sale of milk or milk products, and — as Ms Gandhi complains — segregate the productive animals from those that are no longer commercially useful. The latter are at best given less care and, sadly, too often essentially starved. The minister also makes the telling point that, while many of these gaushalas might have a temple on the premises supposedly to venerate cows, these rarely translate such veneration into actual treatment by, for example, also having a shed where sick cows can be treated. The increasingly appalling treatment of past-their-prime bovines is a reflection of strict cow slaughter laws and, now, vigilante violence against cow traders, which receives the support of fringe elements. In this climate of fear, even the legal cattle trade cannot be carried out and so many superannuated cows are left to die or be starved in unscrupulous gaushalas. This has led to the paradoxical situation that in a country where many do, in fact, revere the cow, and in many parts of which cow slaughter is banned, the animal itself has a far less comfortable and more unhygienic life than in other parts of the world. This is in spite of apparent support to the cause by actions such as the appointment last week of the founder of a prominent Haryana cow shelter as head of the Animal Welfare Board, which comes under the Union environment ministry.
While many of these cow shelters are run by private trusts, others depend on obvious or covert forms of government assistance. As with all public funds, it would be best if such support was transparent and spent on properly regulated shelters. The mismanagement of even government-run shelters is visible in the effect on outcomes of handing over one shelter in Jaipur to a non-governmental organisation: The number of daily cattle deaths at the shelter came down from 90 to 30, and milk production jumped from 150 to 2,400 litres a day. Ms Gandhi’s effort to outline ideal regulations should perhaps be seen in this light. The manual has detailed suggestions on how to construct an animal shelter, the kind of food to be served, protocols of rescue and even disposal of carcasses. The relevant ministries at the central and state levels should look hard at appropriate policies and rules.
