NEW DELHI:In a bid to discourage cow slaughter, the Ministry of Agriculture is focusing on its urine while the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare—especially the Department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy)—is emphasising on ‘panchgavya’, a collective name for five products obtained from cows: milk, curd, ghee, urine and dung. The ministry has decided to give incentives to Ayurvedic drug companies that manufacture medicinal formulations made from ‘panchagavya’.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) also has been told to research the antioxidant, anti-infective and anti-cancer properties of ‘panchagavya’.
The government is trying to discourage cow slaughter by planning to eliminate subsidy to beef exporters, which was introduced by the previous UPA Government. It has also decided to move strongly against legal and illegal slaughterhouses.
In this context, the government recently laid down conditions on how animals meant for consumption are to be kept and transported to the slaughterhouse. This notification directs animal transport trucks to adhere to standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards and to have permanent cages to ensure that they cannot transport more than the allowed number of animals. It will come into effect from January 1, 2016.
Another rule disallows a motor vehicle registered as an animal carrying vehicle from carrying other goods. If it does, it will lose its registration and will be made to pay a fine far heftier than those prescribed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
“Most of these cows being taken to slaughter houses are subjected to inhumane cruelty. Those in the beef business may not find this law attractive, but the government is determined to enact it in letter and spirit,’’ said an official with the Ministry of Transport, which introduced the new regulation.
A source said that the government has become active on cow slaughter after the Ministry of Law and Justice replied in the negative to a query by the Prime Minister’s Office on whether the Centre could circulate laws on cow slaughter as enacted by some states, including Gujarat, as a model bill among other states for their consideration for similar legislations there. As the legal opinion was not in favour of a national ban, the next best option was to encourage cow rearing along with measures discouraging cow slaughter.
Along with these measures, BJP-ruled states have been asked to come up with more stringent laws on cow slaughter. Most of these states—including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana—already have anti-cow slaughter laws wherein sale of beef and cow meat are non-bailable offences with highly punitive fines and jail terms.
In states that plan to have the Unique Identification Authority of India format extended to cows, bovines will be given “Special Identification Tags” with identification numbers and provide them with benefits of health schemes.
The government hopes that these measures will help in stopping cow trafficking to states like Kerala and West Bengal, where cow slaughter is still legal.