At a time when the Manohar lal Khattar led BJP Government in Haryana is claiming to have taken major steps for protection of cows in the State, at least 25 cows have died at a government shelter in Kurukshetra’s Mathana village due to “incessant rains and non-availability of fodder”.
Continuous rains led to water-logging in the cow shelter at the village and a number of cows got stuck in the swampy land and died. While few others starved to death, many more fell sick due to miserable conditions at the government run cow shelter (gaushala) in Mathana village.
The incident has brought forth the apathy of the State Government on cow protection, an issue which the ruling BJP has been using for furthering its political interests since it came to power in Haryana.
Kiran Bala, the Mathana village Sarpanch, said that after severe rains, a number of cows got stuck in swampy land and later died. Several cows starved to death due to the non-availability of fodder, she said.
The Mathana Gaushala, as it is formally known, was started by the Kurukshetra District Administration and the responsibility of its operation lie with the village panchayat and the State Animal Husbandry Department.
District Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry Dr Dharminder Singh asserted that the Department takes proper care of the animals and that the cattle at the Mathana cow shelter were vaccinated by the staff of a veterinary hospital in the village.
“Some weak animals lost their lives after getting stuck in the swampy land. At least 25 to 30 cows have died over the last few days,” he said.
Interestingly, Ashok Papneja, the former president of 'Shri Krishan Gaushala' that provides fodder to the government cattle shelter, said the District Administration had raised a boundary wall on around seven-and-a-half acres of village panchayat land and "that is how it was built".
“At present, there are more than 600 cows in the shelter, which lacks proper facilities. There is no fodder and drinking water available for so many cows,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, operations at the cow shelter have been suspended until repair work is carried out.
Haryana Gau Sewa Commission chairman Bhani Das Mangla and a few district administration officials had visited the cow shelter a day before to take stock of the situation.
Following the incident, Sub-Divisional Magistrate Narinder Pal Malik, who was among those who visited the shelter to take stock of the situation asked officials to shift the sick cows to a cattle shelter in Karnal.
“Other animals have been relocated to 20 other shelters running in the district till the repair works here at the cow shelter are completed,” he said.
In the month of May, more than 35 cows were killed and around 50 injured after a wall at a cow shelter in Rewari’s Jaatusana village had collapsed due to strong winds and rain.
There are around 431 cow shelters in the state, for which the Haryana Government had recently released its formulated standard operated procedures (SOPs), which has to be adopted by all gaushalas for respectable upkeep of cattle.
However, the guidelines are yet to be adopted by the cow shelters to ensure protection of cattle.
While the saffron party have been pushing for strict implementation of cow-related laws and welfare schemes in Haryana, the opposition has accused the ruling party of pursuing the agenda of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of “Hindutva”.
The State Government had in 2015 imposed a complete ban on the sale of beef in any form in the state and had also made cow slaughter punishable by up to 10-year imprisonment following the passage of Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Bill 2015, for protection and upkeep of cows.
However, with random acts of violence by cow vigilante groups (gau rakshaks) and cases of cow smuggling, the BJP led Haryana Government in its first half tenure has attracted sharp criticism from opposition –Congress and INlD-- in the state.
Notably, the State Government’s decision to introduce ‘special identification tags’ for state cows and ‘identity cards’ for gau rakshaks, was also criticized.