What Indian cows really need

What should a Gau Rakshak be protecting? Cows, right? So why is it that the marauding Gau Rakshaks have managed to kill a man but not really protected India’s cows? Yes, India’s cows.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, India has a range of 61 indigenous cow breeds. Some of them are teetering on extinction. Reportedly, 69% of the indigenous breeds are with the poor, who cannot afford the fancy foreign breeds — Jerseys and Holsteins.

But their own loss of land, vulnerability and lack of access to many facilities, which would help them rear cattle better has an impact on the viability of Indian cattle.

This is exacerbated by wider changes, such as reduced land for pastoral use, reduced need for bulls for agriculture, and lack of a policy specifically to conserve these breeds of cows.

Local breeds are likely to weather droughts, heat and be able to feed of locally available feedstock better than other breeds and cross-breeds.

Besides, they are part of India’s rich generic pool and preserving them, along with other types of bio-diversity, is protecting our heritage.

This I see as the first step to protecting cows — to respecting their diversity and ensuring it survives. What is the role of a gau rakshak (cow protector) here? I believe it is only one to take upon themselves the task of lovingly nurturing and bringing up one or more cow breeds, ensuring they proliferate and their generic pool is conserved. That is the only type of gau rakshak our cows need. Anything else is irrelevant and irresponsible.

The writer is director, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group