PALAKKAD: The Janata Dal (S)-controlled Perumatty Service Co-operative Bank (PSCB) has become the first financial institution in the state to capitalise on the assistance from Centre-sponsored Rashtriya Gokul Mission. It has already purchased 100 Gir cows, including from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The bank will distribute 75 of them to five-member farmer groups.
“Twenty-eight Gir cows, which reached Palakkad, have been kept at the Central Goshala at Kambalathara while the remaining are on their way. As per the Animal Welfare Act, each animal requires 32 square feet of area and only seven animals can be accommodated in one lorry. It takes at least seven days to transport them to Kerala as the vehicles cover only 200 kilometers a day. The total cost of transporting each animal comes to Rs 18,000. The cost of each animal will exceed Rs 1 lakh in Kerala. It won’t be allowed to be sold or traded,” said PSCB project officer K I Ani.
The Kerala Livestock Development Board is implementing the scheme through PSCB farmer groups in Vandithavalam, Chittur, for the production of A2 milk and undertaking organic cultivation, said the Board’s managing director Dr Jose James in his letter to district collector P. Suresh Babu seeking permission to transport the cows to the Gaushala at Kambalathara.
A Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana project has been sanctioned at an outlay of Rs 239.85 lakh. Against this, Rs10 lakh has been sanctioned for the purchase of 100 Gir cows and other Indian breeds of cows.