# India

Slaughter rules put male bovines at risk

The recent notification of “ban on cattle sale for slaughter” would do more harm than good to the male bovine…

Statesman News Service | New Delhi | May 30, 2017 4:56 pm

Slaughter rules put male bovines at risk

The recent notification of “ban on cattle sale for slaughter” would do more harm than good to the male bovine population, which has already been on the decline due to mechanisation of agricultural equipment.

According to senior officers of the Animal Husbandry department, farmers have already started abandoning the male bovine as it cannot be put to productive use.

“At present the only purpose of rearing male bovines was for meat, but with the new notification and recent attacks on people transporting cattle, they would stop keeping them. And the notification would do more harm than good to the already declining population of male bovines,” said a senior officer of the animal husbandry department..

The male bovine population was 103.21 million in 2007 but came down to a mere 84.01 million in 2012 ~ an 18 per cent decrease. During the same period milch animals increased from 77 million to 80 million. The 2017 picture would also show a similar trend.

“There is already a radical shift of farmers from rearing of draft animals to rearing of animals for milk production. Most of them are keeping male bovines to sell it as meat. With the new notification, rearing male bovines would become a liability for poor farmers,” said the official.

“Government should seriously think of doing something to make good use of male bovines, if it wants them to grow in numbers. No farmer will feed them for free when fodder prices are so high," the official said.

In 1951, the country’s cattle population was 153 million and in 2012 it was 183 million, a negligible growth. However, during the same period, buffalo population increased from 43 million to 104 million.

“It is purely economics of profit… the farmer would keep only those animals which earn him profit. Now it is for the government to decide how to make cattle rearing profitable,” the official said.