World Environment Day

Last night I was talking to Mr Saptarishi Sahgal about their Cattle protection Programme in village Damna. I was thinking about it in the morning again and I decided to go against the idea of Cattle Protection.

Last night when he was sitting at our place I just called one of my staff to ask him that how many Cows he have? Whats the use of them?? and How much milk they produce??

This was his answer in presence of Mr Saptarishi Sahagal.

About ten cows are there. We don't milk them and they are there mainly for cow dung manure. We feel lucky when they produce a male calf because that fetches better price in the market. He have less than 5 acre of land.

If he is telling the truth than this should be the answer of each and every villager of the area.

Now why I went against cattle protection.

Villagers are protected against their financial loss in cattle lifting by the government through cattle compensation.

If somebody wants to have ten cattle's then he should feel responsible for them. My staff said he pays 50 Rs per head to a person for grazing. He takes them out in the day to graze in nearby forest. They do not feed them in the night at home when they come back from the jungles.

Some people who get Wheat chaff feed them only after April otherwise they survive grazing in jungle. But most of the people do sell their wheat chaff for cash.

This is the same situation or worst than human population explosion. When people are responsible for their children then why not of Cattle too?

Here cattle are kept on Zero cost.

If we think on total economy of these cattle we will see that they destroy forest more than what one can imagine.

So what is the use of running a programme for cattle protection?

Its better to do an animal husbandry programme to improve the cattle breed for better milk yield which benefits the villager and reduces the pressure on nearby forest.

Villagers love to survive on subsidy so they jump on any scheme that gives them some sort of hand out.

I would like readers to put their comments on this. I will love to read some negative comments on this just to improve my understanding of village economy.