NO COUNTRY FOR OLD BULLS

IN GUJARAT, SOME 50,000-ODD BULLS ARE BEING CASTRATED TO BRING DOWN STRAY CATTLE NUMBERS AS RAPID URBANISATION, FARM MECHANISATION AND COW PROTECTION ACTIVISM TURN BOVINES INTO A BURDEN. BUT WILL SUCH BAND-AID SOLUTIONS SUFFICE?

- Jumana Shah

On January 20, as Gujarat agriculture minister Raghavji Patel arrived at a gaushala in Morbi, a bull—all deckedup—was readied for a special ceremony. During the short puja that followed, the minister showered the bovine with flowers, seeking blessings for what was to come... The unsuspecting bull was soon to become the first to be castrated as part of a statewide drive to—as Patel described it—“conserve stray cattle”.

The BJP government in Gujarat finds itself in an uncomfortable quandary in dealing with an excess of bovines. So, it has decided to castrate 50,000-odd bulls that are over a year old. This is the latest in a series of failed attempts to curb the stray cattle menace in the state’s urban areas. Abandoned or left loose in public spaces, cattle—especially bulls—continue to pose a threat to humans, attacking passers-by or causing road accidents. In August last year, even former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel suffered a minor leg fracture after a stray cow charged through a BJP rally he was leading in Mehsana district. At times, such mishaps turn fatal—on January 24, just four days after the castration drive was launched, a man was killed after he rammed his car into a stray bull in Bhavnagar. It has been over a year since the Gujarat High Court first took cognisance of the issue and has been continuously nudging the government to “act”, noting in December last year that the “stray cattle menace has gone out of proportion”.