Beef curry off the menu in Mumbai

BEEF has been banned from Mumbai’s restaurants after the state government enforced laws making possession of beef and the slaughter of cows illegal.

The ban was passed by the government of Maharashtra around 20 years ago but not implemented until now by a new Hindu nationalist administration.

Anyone found breaking the law in the state in western India could face a fine and up to five years in prison.

Steak and kidney pie will remain on the menu of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, one of India’s oldest British Rajera clubs. The 170-year-old establishment will stick to its original recipes using ‘buff ’ - buffalo meat - rather than beef steak for the pies.

Hindus, who make up 80 per cent of India’s 1.2 billion population, consider cows sacred, but large numbers of the population, particularly the international elite and the poor, eat beef.