Natural Farmers Kerala

If you feel this article is misleading or against any community. Then you should propound why ancient Indians gave so much importance to cows and no other animals, not even the popular buffalo?

Because no other ruminant can help humans in agrarian activity as cows. It can also produce milk and fertilize soil. Definitely they are the survivors of human kind. Buffalo ox can pull cart loads of weight but they are not good at other agrarian work(cannot follow commands)and cannot tolerate sun’s heat.

Cows large portion of meal is hay and grass, which is available through out the year, so millions of cows can never eat away Indian economy. Grass and wild forage grows abundantly in India. (However grazing area is shrinking along with the cows very fast, all thanks to corporate companies in the name of development.) Billions of micro organism eat and digesting the hay and grass in cows rumen. Cows just break down it in smaller portions and absorb the nutrient once it is fermented. No other ruminant can produce such large amount of micro-organism and expel them through the gut.

So a Cow is any day important to any economy. It has to be worshiped.

Kerala’s Meat Consumption is a Whopping 5,000 tonnes every day

Kerala has exhausted all it Indigenous cattle and it is making Tamil Nadu, Andra-Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka and even Maharashtra deplete their cows. Agriculture vanishes if cows are no longer available. Believe it or not it is a fact. Kerala is the best example. Without cows there can only be agribusiness, corporate farming etc, nothing is sustainable.

On papers Kerala would be spending a lot on Farming, but the fact is all the food grains, vegetables, meat and milk has to come from neighboring states.

Kerala’s meat consumption is a whopping 5,000 tonnes every day. More than 80 per cent of population, including some brahmins are meat eaters. Kerala is only able to produce 264 tonnes of meat in a day, This big shortage is mostly satisfied by Tamilnadu. Of the 5,000 tonnes 40 percent is beef. This stats is a per 2009-2010, it would have increased significantly.

This could have been triggered because of white revolution.

Most parts of Kerala has forest cover even today, so people would have consumed meat on a regular basis in ancient times. Gradually when feudal lords came in picture grains and pulses were stored with them. For a days hard work land lords would pay grains(mostly rice). People would have looked for alternate cheap source of protein. Malayalees feed on a wide variety of animals such as Mongoose, Malabar Civet, Porcupine, Monitor Lizards etc. In the 60’s and 70’s red meat would have been very cheap as compared to goat, chicken and fish. Because of planing commission creating Animal husbandry as a separate entity and then systematic elimination of native cows to pave way for swiss and HF cows. Same time most lower income group was moving to gulf and other countries. Which would have triggered the beef or more meat eating pattern in Kerala. Muslim invasion and British rule would have also made it more popular. This is what I feel.

If it was Gods own country then situation of Cows(for that matter any animals) here in Kerala would have not been so HORRIBLE…. There are hardly any Indigenous cows left in “beef’s own country”… It is very difficult to find indigenous cows even in rural villages of Kerala. You can only locate them in tribes located inside forest where vehicles cannot reach by road or if any individual is really passionate about Native cows. Most cows in Kerala are crossbreed or High yielding firangi cows(mostly Jersey or HF). All cross breed and firangi Cows suffer here horribly. Most of the times even antibiotics don’t help them.They are then send to slaughter houses. During night time from 7 pm to late in the night there are so many vehicles carrying cows, bulls, heifers to slaughter houses in towns and villages, Cops are easily bribed.

If you search beef fry in Google, it will suggest Kerala beef fry, such is the importance of beef in Kerala. It is a very popular dish in Kerala. Every small time hotel owners will have it.

If you question policy makers. They will say Indian cows are not slaughtered. Thing is currently India is the worlds third largest beef exporter. However Indian beef is not really cows beef. It is actually buffalo meat which is exported. Which is internationally sold at a cheap rate to developing or underdeveloped nations as beef. However local consumption and smuggling of cows to other countries are rampant for meat.

Indian Holy Cows Meat Trade is a Underground Business

Indian Indigenous or Holy cows meat trade is a underground business, because there is carving for cows meat.

It is clear that all the cow belts in northern states have buffaloes now. Farmers have accept it because of clear increase in demand for buffalo milk and meat. There is no sentimental attachment to a buffalo.

Most cows are regularly send to Bangladesh through Bengal and other bordering districts for slaughter. It is estimated some 1.5 million cows are smuggled to Bangladesh each year. Kerala imports around 2 lacs of cattle every month from neighbouring states for meat consumption.

10 to 20 thousand cows are also marched from Palakkad and other areas every day into Kerala, which is unaccounted.

There are no severe consequences of breaking Indian law be it any case. Same is with meat industry most of the trucks transporting cows are native indigenous cow breeds, most of them threatened species, buyers or sellers for the matter of fact even the law enforcement people are unaware of the fact.

You can check this video to see Indian Zebu cattle and water buffalo sent to slaughter houses in kerala. How the whole process works. Thanks for the efforts of Temple Worshippers Society.

Temple worshippers society has created this documentary to show how cruelly cattle mafia is transporting and handling HOLY COWS! Till the time there is demand for meat killing will not stop.

Congress has a tainted image since Nehru’s era. As per latest updates beef export is levied tax free whereas cotton and other agrarian export is taxed. It is all policy makers who are influenced by corporate to amend laws for their benefit.

Kapil Sibal’s wife and Social activist Promila Sibal owns a meat processing unit in Uttar Pradesh. Arihant exporters was the name of the arbitrator, which was later changed due to protest from Jain community.

This is just the tip of a iceberg. How in the world can a social activist own a meat processing plant. it’s an inhuman activity.

Existence of Indigenous Indian Cattle

Post Independence tractors, chemical fertilizer, pesticides, hybrid seeds and modern farming techniques have all destroyed traditional scientific environmentally sustainable Hindu way of farming in India. Introduction of Hybrid cows have further damaged agriculture and the very existence of indigenous Indian cattle. This has made them more vulnerable to slaughter. In a matter of few years desi cows will vanish. Pure desi breeds are very hard to locate nowadays. Except Gir cows rest all the breeds are in really bad shape.

Fact is there are only a few lacs of Indian cows left. India is still proud of its 200 plus million cattle. However it is mostly replaced by cross breeds and Imported one’s.

It will be similar to the tiger story. Government agencies kept saying there are thousands of tigers in the wild. But the actual head count revealed only a few hundreds left in the wild.

I seriously hope Kerala tries to learn from it’s mistakes.

Credits & References

• Image credit – http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfelder/