The condition of the cow, which has been grabbing media attention for the past few years, in Uttarakhand seems to be poor as the cows are getting infertile and going unnoticed. This is happening because people are keeping cows without knowing about their balanced diet. Such under-nourished cows do not serve the purpose of the people who rear them so sometimes the people desert such cows. The Government is now laying emphasis on cow protection but it is not yet laying adequate emphasis on how to make the rearing of cows profitable.
As per the details, the highest number of infertile cows in Uttarakhand are found in Dehradun district- 1503. Among the other districts Pithoragarh has 1,390 infertile cows, Pauri has 1,152, Nainital 940, Udham Singh Nagar 879, Almora 550, Chamoli 453, Champawat 104, Bageshwar 103, Haridwar 101, Tehri 74 and Rudraprayag 57.
Talking to The Pioneer a veterinary doctor said that the cows are becoming infertile due to nutritional deficiency and the rate of such instances is higher in the mountainous regions because people are not aware about the proper feeding of the cow. They let their cows out to graze but the cow does not get enough minerals and vitamins through grazing. Instead of leaving the cow out to graze, if the owners keep her inside the house and provide proper feed then their cows would not suffer from infertility and would give milk as well.
Apart from this, the Government has imparted training for artificial insemination while also opening several centres and sub-centres. However, observers point out that due to factors like lack of proper training sometimes the cow fail to conceive because the people concerned don’t know when and how to insert semen and how much quantity to insert. The veterinarian further said that one can treat a cow’s infertility by providing her balanced diet but this is not done often due to unawareness of the owner or unavalablity of minerals. As the government has failed to meet the expectation of the farmers so private sector has grown but they are ill trained and people are not considering keeping cows a profitable business.
It would be pertinent to mention here that the average life span of a cow is 12-14 years. A cow starts conceiving after two years of age and continues till 10-12 years of her age but she needs a balanced diet otherwise she may be affected by infertility. Now there is high quality artificial inseminator and even semen available.
Ironically State Government is running Ganga Gai Yojana and providing cow upto worth Rs 50,000 but in reality they have been providing Badri variety which produces milk with a high nutrional value but the milk quantity is meagre to keep for livelihood. While in plains there is the Holstein Friesian breed which costs about Rs 1.5- Rs two lakh per cow with a cow yielding at least 50-60 litres milk per day while the mountainous variety of cow, which is now known as Badri variety, gives mere one to two litres per day with a cow of this species being sold for Rs 5,000 toRs 7,000 per head.
Talking to The Pioneer Minister of state for Animal Husbandry, Rekha Arya said that that as per the national animal census-2012 in Uttarakhand 7569 cows were reportedly infertile and department is treating them by organising special camps. She said, “We have been organising special camp to treat infertility in cows. During the camp we give de-worming medicine to the cow apart from minerals and vitamins too. With this we have been helping cows to regain the health of its immune system and experience normal reproduction.”