Slaughtering Ban Controversy : Issues, challenges and the way forward

Slaughtering Ban Controversy : Issues, challenges and the way forward

Disclaimer: Views are personal.

In any society choice of food is an outcome of prolonged social and cultural developments. Accordingly and gradually various skills, occupations and economic activities also emerge around these basic needs of the society. Within the society there are various schools of thoughts which may consider this activity as non-essential or unwanted but others may think it is important for the society for various reasons. This is part of the development and evaluation of any civilisation and society. Co-existence of various school of thoughts in a given political environment is the real challenge and this depends upon the political leadership and maturity of various sections of society to accommodate difference of opinions.

Controversy over ban on slaughtering of large dry milch animals like buffaloes is such situation, which needs very careful handling because it may have various social, cultural and economic implications for the whole society. 

Legal and illegal slaughtering is another dimension which I will also discuss.

First of all, let us understand the situation before us for better understanding of the ground reality. 

Livestock population and Stray animals in India:

According to 19th Livestock Census conducted by Government of India, the total livestock population, consisting of Cattle, Buffalo, Sheep, Goat, pig, Horses and Ponies, Mules, Donkeys, Camels, Mithun and Yak in the country, is 512.05 million numbers in 2012. 

The total livestock population has decreased by about 3.33% over the previous census. 

At the same time the Livestock population has increased substantially in Gujarat (15.36%), Uttar Pradesh (14.01%), Assam (10.77%), Punjab (9.57%) Bihar (8.56%); Sikkim (7.96%), Meghalaya (7.41%), and Chhattisgarh (4.34%). 

The number of milch animals (in milk and dry), cows and buffaloes, has increased from 111.09 million to 118.59 million, an increase of 6.75%. The number of animals in milk, cows and buffaloes, has increased from 77.04 million to 80.52 million showing a growth of 4.51%. It means 38.07 million cows and buffaloes are dry or unproductive animals.

Now what is important for us to consider is, the milch buffaloes increased from 48.64 million to 51.05 million with an increase of 4.95% over previous census, whereas Indigenous milch cattle increased from 48.04 million to 48.12 million, an increase of just 0.17%. 

The Female Cattle (Cows) Population has increased by 6.52% over the previous census (2007) and the total number of female cattle in 2012 is 122.9 million numbers. The Female Buffalo population has increased by 7.99% over the previous census and the total number of female buffalo is 92.5 million numbers in 2012.

What is the biggest challenge?

To keep the animals in milking condition, breeding is essential part of biological production system. It means if we keep all 122 million milking animals productive, there must be caving of all the animals. According to the probability theory, we must be ready for 50% of total breeding as males calves every year from 122 million milking animals. In today's, rural economy in India, these calves are of no productive use to farmers in agriculture due to application of tractors and electrical pumps. Very small farmers use them for draught purpose and these animals are generally underfed and weak, because the owner farmer himself is weak and underfed.

What these number communicates to us?

There is a growing tendency among the farmers to keep buffaloes because disposal of cow is painful process in Indian society because of our cultural factors. Cow raising farmers very often find that he is not able to maintain the dry animals or old animal and at the same time cannot dispose of unproductive animal. These animals becomes liability in place of assets. The best option for him is to leave the animals away from villages or near cities and these stray animals becomes a social challenge for the society and the civil administration. There is no policy in the country how to handle these 100 million stray animals every year. The only option left is culling of these stray animals by illegal slaughter houses and slaughter houses with government permissions. Very often there animals are smuggled to neighbouring countries for slaughtering purpose. 

How to handle this without disturbing the livestock economy of India is a very sensitive, controversial as well as old question?

Stray Animals is a growing social and economic challenge - but no policy to address this

Without proper management, these stray animals will destroy agriculture fields in villages this may lead to law and order problem in villages. In the absence of feed and fodder these animals will move closer to cities and towns in search of food and water and create social problems by occupying open areas reserved for movements like roads and parking and there will be growing incidences of accidents due to stray animals.

The recent decisions of UP, Haryana and now Gujarat governments must also elaborate what are their plans to manage unproductive stray animals? Why state governments are taking decisions without addressing the basic problems of stray animals?

Dairy development and shortage of feed and fodder: 

If you read the history of Indian dairy industry and the causes of poor productivity of milking animal in India, it clearly highlights that there is shortage of grazing land, shortage of feed and fodder and there is competition for feed and fodder between productive and non-productive animals. There is no mechanism suggested by any policy making body in last 70 years, how to remove the non-productive animals and low yielding animals from the systems so that good yielding animals can be provided with proper nutrition. 

According to various reports of Government of India, there is acute shortage of feed and fodder up to the extent of 30 to 60 respectively. Who will feed these millions of  stray animals every day and at what cost? These sick stray animals will be visible in every part of city or town without any care. Many of these animals will die on roads or in residential colonies due to sickness or hunger. Will this be a good situation?

Food Habits can't change overnight mainly protein source: 

Certain sections of society which are strictly vegetarian considers such slaughtering as undesirable and inhuman act. On the other end, as per various food surveys, about 70 percent population of India is non-vegetarian in food habits. Hygiene in the meat sector was a concern. 

This was one of the reason that Planning Commission and Union government created a separate scheme to promote modern abattoirs by extending financial support to state governments as well as private sector.

Without ensuring proper meat supplies, this will add pressure on vegetarian sources of protein. If you look at the availability of food in the country, there is already shortage of vegetarian sources of protein.

This will also increase the prices of other animal protein sources like fish and chicken. 

There is no mechanism in the country to control the prices of essential commodities of animal origin. This will hurt public health and create food inflation. Poultry farmers are already suffering due to exorbitant chick prices. 

Economic Impact of Slaughtering controversy:

About USD 6 billion is the exports of leather and leather products from India. Under ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ we are planning to promote these cottage industries, but such controversies may put serious question on the future of these industries. Millions of people in these sectors will have to look for alternate options for livelihood.

What is the way forward?

Before such controversial decisions, in my view, government must develop a National Livestock Management Policy. This must include the following:

1.Plan selective breeding operations to minimise the production of undesirable animals, like use of sexed semen for insemination will ensure 90% of females and minimise the production of male animals which are not in demand by farmers.

2. Develop National Feed and Fodder Policy so that feeding requirements for unproductive animals can also be considered in the plan.

3. Ensure transparency in FSSAI licensing procedures. There is need to make this system more accountable and time bound. The delay in granting licensing of meat shops and slaughter houses can be attributed to the corruption on ground. Mandatory system will open new gates for corruption and corrupt practices are common in inspection and licensing departments.

4. Please provide budget for 100 million stray animals because today there are no provisions for veterinary services and feeding shades and parlours for stray animals. This is making whole problem complex. Why no animal welfare NGO is coming forward to address this problem, they were making noise about stray animals.

5. Transportation of animals is also controversial due to meat ban.

This ban controversy, without proper planning, will only benefit large slaughter houses and price of meat, chicken and all relate product will go up. Consumers and small farmers will be the biggest sufferer. 

Our dairy development plan to produce 200 million tons milk is anyway a illogical decision and far away from ground reality (You can read my blog on 'Lack of leadership in Dairy Sector of India'  to know the facts and figures), now If we are not willing to take any corrective action now, in that case we may have to sign import agreement for milk products from New Zealand and Australia in coming years. 

The whole issue needs serious debate in national interest. A sensible and pragmatic policy will be required to address the challenges of Ban on Illegal slaughtering and stray animals with all stakeholders. 

You are free to circulate this article for proper debate in the society on this sensitive topic.