Series: Krishna Katha
Episode 2: Rediscovering the Holy Cow
When
we look at the rural economy of the world, the first thing we can observe is
significance of animals in sustaining such economy be it agrarian or dairy.
Considering this fact, cow is critical to the survival of farming based economy
of India, where bulls not only tilted the land since ages but cows serve as an
alternate source of income through dairy products and also meeting the fuel
requirements of the household and neighbourhood.
In
ancient times, i.e. before the advent of Islam in Bharat, whenever there was an
invasion, the attackers used to claim the livestock of the region they invaded.
Also on losing wars livestock were offered as compensation in addition to
precious metals and gems. This clearly indicates the importance of livestock
especially cow. So when the Bharatiya social heads put ban on beef, i.e.
killing of cows, it was not only on the ground of religion, but also to protect
the livestock of a kingdom.
Now
coming to the modern world, the farmers have tractors so they don’t need bulls.
But don’t they need the free bio-fuel generated from the cows? Non-conventional
forms of energy are coming up to compete with fuel energy and bio-fuel produced
from cow dung can play an important role in this aspect. Also there is cow
urine which has been patented for several diseases like diabetes and is already
in use by various pharma companies across the globe. Not detailing the enormous
market of dairy products which can be conveniently accessed with the
availability of processing and preservation units.
The
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has dubbed beef as a 'climate harmful
meat' due to its carbon footprint. World health Organization (WHO)
has also marked read meat such as beef as a probable reason for cancer.
As
a Bharatiya it is our duty to make people aware about the harmful consequences
of beef eating, not to enforce Hindu rituals on others, but to protect the health,
economy and environment.
