Rajasthan: Strict bovine law has seen sharp rise in unclaimed cows; farmers upset

Jaipur, Dec 6: The BJP all across the nation is busy serving the cows by ensuring that their lives are not harmed by anybody whatsoever. The cow-protecting brigades have also run berserk with news of lynching of people from minority communities on charges of trafficking cows or consuming beef making headlines often.

Amid the noise, the farmers of Rajasthan, which go to elections on Friday, December 7, have faced a serious menace and it is also about the cows. Since the ruling BJP government has come up with strict laws on cow protection, the state has seen a rise in the number of stray cows and they are causing real damage to the farmers and their crops.

According to a report in Ananda Bazar Patrika, Rajasthan already had problems with herbivores like sambar, deer and neelgai that intrude into crop fields and damage them. Now, the fourth addition to the list is cow and the farmers are having a torrid time to protect their produce from the bovines.

The state has a law from 1995 that protects cows and in the last two years, the Vasundhara Raje government has implemented it strictly as a result of which businesses like selling or transporting cows, even after they lose their productivity, have taken a hit since not many people are showing the courage to engage in bovine trade. As a result, owners are releasing such cows that have lost their productivity and these unclaimed animals are causing damage to crops in search of food, putting the farmers under a lot of anxiety.

The state government had considered making a shelter house for unclaimed cows in Bikaner district, according to the report but even that has remained unrealised.