KOCHI:Taking undue advantage of the shortage of Vechur cow, Kerala’s indigenous cattle variety that is the smallest in the world, middlemen have been making a quick buck by bringing local varieties of dwarf cows to the State from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to ‘Express’, veterinarian-cum-professor Dr Sosamma Iype who played a key role in reviving the internationally famed Vechur cow breed, said the practice of selling local breeds of dwarf cows, in the guise of Vechur cows, was rampant in the State, after the Vechur breed become rare due to a conservation initiative taken up by a group of veterinarians.
“Recently, an advertisement appeared in a vernacular newspaper claiming that Vechur cows certified by the Animal Husbandry Department deputy director were available for sale. Later, an investigation conducted by the Vechur Conservation Trust, which has been formed for protecting the Vechur breed, found that the cow as well as the certificate were fake.
There were also instances of unscrupulous veterinarians certifying dwarf cows brought from the other states to Kerala as Vechur cows, and aiding agencies in the dairy sector to sell them as Vechur cows,” said Sosamma.
Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University director of entrepreneurship Dr T P Sethumadhavan said the cow farm attached to the university had only less than 200 Vechur cows, and that the university recently hiked the price of Vechur cows to Rs 75,000 from Rs 5,000 nearly a decade ago, after finding it difficult to meet the rising demand.
Besides, the cow that on average yields around 2.5 litre of milk daily - which has high medicinal value - is now priced between Rs 1.25-1.5 lakh in the open market. The buyer has to wait for many months before getting the calves and completing registration formalities at the farm attached to the University. Middlemen have been cashing in on these factors,” he said.
“A major chunk of the cows being sold in the State as the Vechur breed by middlemen are either calves of other local dwarf varieties or ‘genetically polluted’ Vechur cows. There are only less than 3,000 Vechur cows in the country - the rare cattle breed of ‘Bos indicus’ with an average length of 124 cm and height of 87 cm. The majority of the rare cow breed is now in the other states,” he added.