Soon, cosmetics & cures from cow sanctuary

BHOPAL: India’s first and only cow sanctuary will be inaugurated in Madhya Pradesh’s Agar-Malwa district later this year.

By 2017, the sanctuary will also become a production centre to make cow urine and dung-based Ayurvedic medicines, cosmetics, pesticides and bio-fertilisers on a mass scale in a first-of-its-kind initiative by the state government, officials said.

The medicines will primarily be made using Panchagavya — a concoction of cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd and ghee.

While Madhya Pradesh will be the first state to get a cow sanctuary, two other BJP-ruled states — Haryana and Rajasthan — have also set in motion the process to set up similar havens for bovines.

The sanctuary in Salriya village is spread over 472 hectares and will house 6,000 cows once fully operational. The project, which was announced by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in 2008, is being implemented by the Madhya Pradesh Gaupalan Evam Pashudhan Samvardhan Board. Work on the `31.9 crore project started in 2013.

Chouhan and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had performed the bhoomi pujan for setting up the sanctuary in December 2012. Sources said when the project was conceptualised after the CM’s announcement in 2008, it was estimated to cost `1.52 crore. However, when Bhagwat expressed his desire that the project should be developed on a large scale and serve as a model for the country, the cost was scaled up.

MP has the highest cattle population in the country, with over 1.96 crore cows. Against this backdrop, Chouhan later announced that the sanctuary would also have a research centre and a production unit, besides being developed as a pilgrimage site.Animal husbandry director Dr RK Rokde, who is also the managing director of the board, said, “We are calling it Gau Abyaranya, Anusandhan evam Utpadan Kendra (cow sanctuary, research and production centre). The sanctuary, which has nearly 500 cows at present, will finally have 6,000 cows. The infrastructure for the production unit has been set up.”He added, “In 2017, we will be in a position to start production of cow urine and cow dung based herbal products, Panchagavyabased medicines, cosmetics such as soaps and shampoos, incense sticks, organic pesticides, bio-fertilisers and vermicompost among others.”