Goalpara (Assam): The 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus disease has not just taken a toll on human lives but has also pushed stray as well domesticated animals to the brink of starvation, with cattle rearers in Assam being forced to feed its livestock with water and salt due to non-availability of fodder.
Sanjay Chetri, a cattle rearer from Goalpara district of Assam, says, “ever since the lockdown was imposed, I have been forced to feed my cattle with water and salt to keep the livestock alive as there is no fodder available at the market.”
With the cattle starving, milk production has also taken a beating, thereby leading to loss of income for the 200 odd families in the district dependent on the sale of milk for their survival.
“Cow will only produce milk only when they are sufficiently fed. How will they produce milk if they are being fed with water instead of fodder? If we don’t sell milk it gets extremely difficult for us to bear our daily expenses,” Chetri told ETV Bharat.
It is not just the cattle rearers who are struggling to keep its flock alive, ‘gaushala’ or cattle shelters are also in distress as they are finding it difficult to keep their livestock from starving.
Distressed ‘gaushalas’
Chandrani Das, General Secretary of Dhyan Foundation, an organisation which runs a ‘gaushala’ in Goalpara also narrates a similar ordeal.
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With over 2,000 cattle sheltered at their ‘gaushala’, Das says that they need at least 15 tons of fodder every day to feed the animals. But the lockdown has effectively made it impossible for her to source the required amount of fodder either from the market or from the countryside.
“We are somehow managing to keep this place up and running...We are unable to access fodder for the cattle amid the lockdown. Fodder is neither available at the market nor can we travel to rural areas to source fodder from the farmers directly,” Das told ETV Bharat.
While the haphazard imposition of the lockdown by the Centre itself has made life difficult for the layman, the curfew-like interpretation of the lockdown by the police has made matters worse.
“Although the government has notified Gaushala’s and animal shelters as essential services, our truck drivers are being beaten up by the police, without even giving a chance for them to explain their presence on the road. A veterinary ambulance driver was also beaten up while he was on his way to Guwahati,” claims Das.
The scarcity of fodder has now forced the gaushala to send the cattle away to the nearby fields to graze, but Das fears that the continued lockdown and police brutality may even lead to starvation-induced death of the animals.
“Since we are running short of fodder, we are sending half of our cattle out of the shelter to graze...there hasn’t been any deaths reported from our shelter due to lack of food, but we fear the situation might get worse in the future,” said Das.
Sacred yet forgotten ‘Gaumata’!
When the Narendra Modi-led Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, there was much hullabaloo around the protection of cows, which is considered to be a sacred animal among the Hindus.
The hyperbole around cow protection exacerbated cow vigilantism in the country leading to several lynchings of members belonging to the minority community and Dalits.
Despite the government claiming commitment to the cause of cows, several reports have been emerging over the past few years about the dire condition of gaushalas and the sacred cow.
