UP’s cow-care hypocrisy: Pitiable state of gaushalas

With no budget, staff, fodder or infrastructure, the only state government-run cowshelter or gaushala here in Uttar Pradesh’s LakhimpurKheri, a district that faces a “cow-menace”, is like “a slaughter house without machines”, officials say.

The recent death of a 17year old girl in Lakhimpur city due to stray cows and encroachment by the animals on roads and farms has now left both public and district authorities miffed with the administrative apathy of the cow-loving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. At present, with nowhere to go, cows and bulls dominate the roads and streets of the entire district, with accidents reported on a daily basis.

According to state animal husbandry officials, the gaushala here has not received a “single penny” in the last few years. Officials have now started saying “no” to police, public and senior officials if they insist on taking more stray and seized bulls, oxen or cows into the shelter.

In fact, the manager of the shelter has been buying fodder from his own salary for the last three years or relying on donations.

“A few years back, I came to know that Rs 40 lakh was sanctioned for this cowshed, but not a single penny had been received.

“Last month we bought seven trollies of fodder, I paid for three trollies from my own salary and the rest were from donations through NGOs, temples and local bank staff,” gaushala manager Surendra Pal told IANS.

“If a cow dies either due to disease or starvation in the gaushala, we will have to face the ire of both the government and the people. There is no fodder or vets on demand,” said an official, who did not want to be named.

“When we send an animal to the cow-shelter, we know that it is going to perish soon, because there are no funds to support it. Those shelters are more like slaughter houses without machines,” another animal husbandry official told this visiting IANS correspondent on condition of anonymity.

“The same is the situation in almost all gaushalas in other districts, be it Sitapur or Hardoi. However, Lakhimpur is one of the worst-affected districts at present due to the very high number of stray animals,” the official said.

To make things more complicated, officials told IANS, the land on which the gaushala animals and other strays are meant to graze is tended by the forest department to grow and sell the green fodder. Thus, the contractors do not allow the shelter’s animals there.

“So, the shelters do not recieve fodder from the government and the animals are not allowed to graze on the proper pasture land,” said an official.