National

The Mother Of Being Useful: Things That Owe To The Cow

Every single inch of a cow is used for something, from fertilisers and brushes to wallpaper and chewing gum

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The Mother Of Being Useful: Things That Owe To The Cow
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Economic Terrorism

The impact of cow vigilantism is being felt down the line

The Big Picture

  • 40% value: Meat
  • 60% value: Hide, milk and other byproducts such as leather for domestic and industrial use, glue, resin, coatings, cosmetics, brushes, etc, made from cattle parts.
  • The Chain of Production integrates livestock producers (farmers, dairies), traders, butchers, wholesale meat  dealers, retailers, those dealing with industrial production of offal and follow-on goods such as glycerin, glue

Leather

  • Hide Transporters Leather supplies to tanneries have halved since 2014. Reasons: GRD activism and bigger bribes demanded by police. Just in November-December 2015, raw leather supply hit by 15% (industry estimate, Uttar Pradesh).

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  • Leather Tanneries One-third in Kanpur have closed since 2014. Profit-making units prefer not to court controversy with GRDs. Slowing leather demand, strict pollution norms makes exit more convenient.
  • Employment Down Leather is a $14 billion industry annually in India, employing 3.35 million people (GoI). Employment declined by about 50,000.

Cattle Transport

  • Transporting Animals is riskier, so cattle transporters who earlier ferried trucks for Rs 5,000-10,000 now demand Rs 20,000-30,000 per trip from traders
  • Dairy Business Around 3 lakh cows go every year from Punjab to Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Punjab’s high-yielding cows fetch Rs 90,000 to Rs 1.4 lakh but GRDs prevent transportation, creating a potential loss of Rs 3,000 crore to dairy farmers.

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Drivers Of A Sector

How gau raksha has hit business

 Cattle Prices

Hit by GRDs and cow protection laws: 50% Indian farmers rear (and sell) cattle. After harassment on roads in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, people getting pushed out of cattle trade.

Buffalo Prices (Haryana)

  • 2015 Rs 30,000 - 50,000
  • Now Rs 40,000 - 80,000

Cow Prices (Maharashtra)

  • 2015 Rs 30,000 - 50,000
  • Now Rs 10,000 - 20,000

Cow protection is now excuse for GRDs to harass buffalo traders too. Leather, tallow, soap, animal-based glue industry nervous and directly hurt.

Affordable meat for food in short supply due to GRDs. Mutton on average costs Rs 360 a kg, whereas beef (cow/buffalo) is Rs 120-180 a kg.

Cattle-Linked Trades

  • Cattle transport rates up from Rs 5,000-10,000 to Rs 20,000-30,000 per trip
  • Community trade – Ferrying fallen cattle, skinning, tanning, cutting leather by Dalits. Hindus, Muslims rear cattle, are middlemen and skilled workers.

Other Cattle Parts

  • Upholstery, cricket ball makers moving to buffalo from cow leather
  • Large shoe manufacturer says clients from Kanpur and Agra ask about threats GRDs pose to business
  • Offal and bones are made into glue, glycerin etc, a 20,000-tonne industry. Fleshing, bone supplies hit.
  • Workers lose jobs, income.
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Adding Up The Heads

  • 190.9 million. Total cows in India
  • 122 million. Female cows Up 6.5% since 2007

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  • 77.04 to 80.52 million. Total cows and buffaloes in milk: Up 4.51%
  • Share of indigenous cattle: Down from 93% in 1992 to 79% since 1992
  • Exotics and cross-breeds’ share: Up from 7 to 21% since 1992

Source: Livestock Census 2012: Agriculture ministry 2014

Laws Banning Cow Slaughter

  • Strictest laws Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
  • Allowed with conditions Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala.
  • No Ban Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura.

Trade In Fallen Cows

Cow beef is five per cent of the total meat production in India (GoI data). The trade in cow leather is from fallen cows, who die of natural causes. There is some trade in cows that are slaughtered legally in above-mentioned states and some are said to be culled illegally, though figures for this are unknown.

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Beef (Buffalo) Export

India’s buffalo meat production is 38 million tonnes, of which 20 lakh tonnes was consumed domestically in 2015. Cow beef is five per cent of the total meat production in India (GoI data).

  • 2014 20,82,000
  • 2015 20,00,000
  • Change -82,000 (in million tonnes)
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