Go Gokul Gone

For all the noise around cow protection, NDA's cow mission, the very first it announced on assuming power, has nearly died

- Jitendra

THIS IS bewildering. More than two years have passed but the Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp)-led government at the Centre, whose leaders sing the virtues of cow and do not shirk from using the animal as an instrument of political warfare, has failed to implement a scheme for the conservation of native cattle breeds.

The programme was originally launched in 2013 during the regime of the United Progressive Alliance II government and was named the National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development. In 2014, after the bjp came to power, it renamed the programme Rashtriya Gokul Mission (rgm) and sanctioned ₹150 crore for setting up 15 gokul grams (cattle centres) across the country. But not a single centre can be seen on the ground. Worse, several states have shown disinterest in the programme, while Goa and Rajasthan, two bjpruled states, have bluntly refused to implement it (see ‘No love for cow’). Though 10 states have agreed to set up gokul gram, they are dragging their feet over it, citing inadequate funds and resources.

At gokul gram, the state livestock department is expected to improve the stock and productivity of indigenous cattle breeds, whose population is rapidly decreasing. Between 2007 and 2012, their number declined by 9 per cent, while the number of exotic breeds increased by 20 per cent, shows an analysis of livestock census by Down To Earth. Today, these indigenous breeds constitute almost 80 per cent of the total cattle population in the country, but account for only 40 per cent of the total milk production. rgm also aims to improve the genetic makeup of ordinary indigenous cattle by using semen from bulls of elite breeds, such as Gir, Sahiwal, Rathi, Deoni, Tharparkar and Red Sindhi. For efficient implementation of the scheme, each gokul gram would be spread over 209 hectares (ha) and have 1,000 head of cattle.