Cows Won Big in UP Budget, Here's How It's Playing out in Bundelkhand Today

The Uttar Pradesh government announced a budgetary allocation of Rs 447 crore for the upkeep of stray cattle for 2019-2020, in the state budget announced on February 7, 2019.

The Yogi Adiyanath-led government has been increasingly allocating money towards what seems to be a favourite area of concern/development – cattle protection or gau raksha – steadily over the years ever since it came into power.

In 2017-18, they assigned Rs 60 crore to the Kanha Gaushala and Besahara Animal Shelters scheme, which jumped to Rs 98.5 crore in the 2018-19 budget. With a more than 300% increase in the allocation, the budget demarcates Rs 247 crores for the upkeep of stray cattle in rural areas and Rs 200 crore for housing stray cattle in urban areas.

“We have no expectations from the government budget because we know we are not going to get anything from it,” said Mahendra pragmatically, a farmer in the village of Dashrat Purwa in Banda. “Everyone in the village works together, collecting donations, keeping guard and taking care of the strays.”

Also read: A Policeman Died in Bulandshahr, But Adityanath's Focus Is Only on Cows

He explained the decision made with neighbouring villages to split the burden of caretaking: “We made a decision that 50 cows would go to Mungaura, and 50 would stay in Dashrat Purwa. To differentiate the cows, we marked them with colours. Yellow was for the cattle staying here, blue was for Mungaura.”

And although the cows were successfully divvied up, it was an unsustainable solution. “The other villages let the cattle loose again, saying that they didn’t have the facilities to keep them and that villagers were complaining about the cattle being next to their houses and roaming around,” he explained. "So the cows wandered back here.”

Cattle are often abandoned by farmers and others when they stop producing milk, especially if there is a scarcity of water (which the drought-prone Bundelkhand almost always has) or if the farmers cannot grow enough to feed them. It is locally known as the anna pratha. These abandoned cows then run amok, trampling crops and being a nuisance to the local residents.

A farmer preps to spend yet another night on his fields, shooing away cattle. Credit: Khabar Lahariya

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The last conducted livestock census in 2012 estimated that UP had 10.09 lakh stray cattle. The work for the next census started in October 2018, and experts expect the numbers to have risen exponentially since.

With the local government doubling down on cow protection, aligning with the state’s chief minister who has said, amidst other things: “If any person indulges in cruelty to cows (leave aside talk of killing of cows), he will find himself behind bars”, earlier tenable solutions of selling or trading unproductive, old or injured cattle have gone out the window.

“We didn’t know what to do but all the villagers got together and decided that we should keep them here on the school grounds because they would otherwise destroy our fields,” said Mahendra, standing in front from the low boundary walls of the local primary school, behind which a significant number of cattle were milling about. However, the police intervened and let the cattle loose again, despite the locals protesting that they didn’t know what else to do, and had hence resorted to locking them up.

Dashrat Purwa is one of the many villages in the state where locals and stray cattle are clashing. It is just one of many villages in which locals have rounded up their cattle on school or other empty grounds only to be let out by the police again. “The cattle roam around all the time,” said local Mahesh. “Villagers have to stay up all night to chase them down and tie them up, the give them fodder, to arrange for water.”

Stray cattle account for 30-35% of the damage to the crops in the Bundelkhand region, some estimates. What’s more, is that unproductive cattle – which these strays usually are – have been estimated to create a loss of Rs 60 per animal per day for the person taking care of it.

Without a local cow shelter and with the paranoia around cow slaughter, farmers are forced to create set-ups like the one in Dashrat Purwa to take care of the problem themselves. This is not an inexpensive task.

Also read: At Gidwaha Community Centre in UP, Cows Are Spotted More Often Than People

“On the ground, it feels like there has been no use of the government-appointed budget for Bundelkhand for the maintenance of stray cattle,” said Balram, the Banda district head of the All India Farmers Union.

He argued that the farmers taking care of the animals – especially when local authorities haven’t been able to catch the strays and put them in cow shelters by January 10 as mandated by CM Adityanath – should be eligible for the Rs 1.5 crore allotted to the district.

“It has been two and a half months, but no money has been given to any village for any cow shelters,” he said. “When we ask them about the money, they say that they are opening a bank account for the pradhan, who will distribute these funds. When we ask them how long it will take, they give us no estimate nor deadline.”

Balram added, “By the time they actually do it, the farmers will have already harvested their crops and would have been taking care of the cattle from their own pockets.”

He had no qualms about calling out corrupt practices: “The administrative officials will just split the money amongst themselves, because that is what happened with last year’s Rs. 1 crore and it will happen again with this year’s Rs 1.5 crore.”

Scepticism about whether the money will ever actually reach the intended was apparent in the locals as well. “The villagers have taken the initiative right now but the question is whether the government’s scheme will actually come into effect and if the money will reach these villagers,” said Dashrat Purwa local Dwarika Prasad, who, despite his saffron robes complete with tilak look, declared the stray cattle situation “a big mess”.

Also read: Kanpur Diary: No More Waiting Till the Cows Come Home

According to Dr. I.N. Sinha, the head medical officer for animals, Banda, official procedure will be followed. He explained what that entails, “The first order of business would be to mark the cattle in all the existing shelters in the villages. The shelters that have been privately made, made by a religious organisation or are registered shelters will not be included in this stock-taking and therefore will not be eligible for any budgetary allocations.”

Temporary shelters, like the one in Dashrat Purwa, are eligible for the funds, he confirmed. However, according to Dr. Sinha, “The first thing is that every village should gather their own resources to take care of the cattle.” He added the important caveat, “If there is a shortfall…” with a big emphasis on the ‘if’, “they should put in a request with the administration for funds.”

And even then there are multiple red-tape hoops to jump through. “When we receive the request, we will evaluate it according to the Rs 30 per animal per day estimate and then give out funds as deemed necessary.”

Sinha’s insistence on the role of ‘society’ was clear, “Society will have to step up to take care of these animals…. The government is giving money for the cattle’s upkeep, but it will fall short,” he said, and added without a tinge of humour, “It will always fall short.”

Apart from the Rs 447 crore, the UP government has imposed a 0.5% cow welfare cess and has encouraged CSR for the upkeep of stray cattle. But when some estimate that it costs upwards of Rs 7 lakh a year just to feed 10 cows, it is easy to see why Dr. Sinha’s assessment is true. Even though he was quick to say that they had mechanisms that made the scheme productive, along the lines of creating creating joint accounts at the district, block and gram levels with veterinary officers.”

His most telling remark bubbled to the surface during our interview when we asked him about the recent massive budgetary allocation and how that would mitigate the problem of stray cattle. “There will be funds for their upkeep. They will be protected and the villagers will get some support from the government. But what else?,” he said.

In the meanwhile, farmers are cobbling together whatever they have to deal with the problem at hand. “We were told that they money would be given only after all the surveying has been completed,” retorted Balram. “It’s been two months, they haven’t been able to finish the survey?”

And with all the red tape involved, harvest season might just be over before these farmers see a reimbursement. They have no option but to sleep in their fields to protect their primary sources of income from arguably the most protected animal in the state.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

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