TIRUNELVELI: Any who live in cities or abroad dream of leading an Arcadian life, but only a few take the plunge. Thirty-yearold Om Prakash from Vickramasingapuram is one of those few. Not only did he realise his dream but he also saved at least six heads of cattle of native breeds from slaughter. The engineering graduate now intends to expand his two-acre dairy that nestles on the fringes of the Western Ghats.
On his journey so far, Prakash said he worked in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait between 2012 and 2018 as an engineer but always dreamt of returning to his hometown and being a farmer. In 2017, he bought an acre of land in Karuthapalliyur village and decided to open a dairy there. But he hadn’t fully made up his mind, so shuttled between the Middle East and the farm throughout the year.
Towards the end of 2018, he bought another acre and two cows of the native Thenpandi breed. By that time, Prakash realised he indeed wanted to be a farmer. “Life abroad made me realise the value of my hometown; I missed the hillocks, the grassland, and the ghats.”
Prakash said it was difficult to find native breeds of cattle for his farm. “I could find only two cows, aged 13 and 14, which were about to be sold for slaughter. We also bought two calves from the same seller along with the cows.” Later, he bought a few cows of the native Chengalpattu Kuttai breed, most of which had been sold for slaughter.
“Now we have 15 heads of cattle – eight cows, two bulls, and five calves.” The initial days were tough, recalls Prakash, who is married and has a three-year-old son. He had to learn everything from scratch – from milking the cows to herding them. “Compared with the imported breeds, native ones give less milk, which is, however, more nutritious. They are better adapted to our weather and can effortlessly climb the steep hills. They can also tolerate droughts better than imported breeds.”
Prakash, however, worried that country breeds are hardly seen in the market these days as a few sell or buy them. “If this continues, native breeds will go extinct,” he said. Forty-year-old AV Das, a dairy farmer in Tirunelveli city, seconded Prakash. “Only a few farmers in Tirunelveli keep native breeds these days and their numbers are likely to dwindle,” he said.
A senior official of the Animal Husbandry Department in Tirunelveli said there is no scheme in the district to protect or promote native breeds of cattle. Prakash also makes value-added products on his farm. Thiruneer (sacred ash made of cow dung), tooth powder, cow dung cakes, and incense sticks are a few of them.