CHAPTER III ADMINISTRATION OF CATTLE LAWS REASONS FOR NON

Smuggling is the main occupation in Murshidabad

Bangladesh earns substantial foreign exchange by selling beef to the Gulf countries. Its beef industry if largely dependent on smuggled cattle from India

Idrish Aly has come a long, desperate way from egghead to a cowboy. After eight futile years of job hunting the bachelor of arts from West Bengal’s border district of Murshidabad recently became a cattle smuggler.

So have thousnads of other yeoug men in the district, where the mail lifeline is smuggling of human beings, aniamls, gold and essential articles. “Every day a thousand head of cattle are being smuggled out to Bangladesh,” said senior police officer of the district, which is infamous for sending children to beg in Mecca. :And there is no holiday in the smuggling business. The smugglers work all seven days a week.” That means more than 3.5 lakh animals are spirited away to Bangladesh every year.

The Bangladesh government apparently is quite happy a bout it for the country earns substantial foreign exchange by selling beef to other Muslim countries, particularly those in the Gulf region. Its beef industry is largely dependent on smuggled cattle from India, and a large number of transit cattle camps have come up along the border. The government also gains from the thousand rupee tax on every animal smuggled into the country.

The smuggling business is lucrative despite the tax. A cow that costs Rs. 5,000 in Murshidabad fetches double the price in Bangladesh, and the payment is is gold ingots, which the smugglers sell in India at a profit. There is very little risk involved: the Indian law enforcers, who generally turn a blind eye, become alert only when they count the bribes.

It is a smooth operation in which there is no haggling over the bribes. The rate isfixed – Rs. 1,000 per cow, bullock or buffalo – and the money is shared among the local police, men of the Border Security Force, and village politicians. All of them obviously consider human beings less valuable; those who smuggle in people from Bangladesh have to pay only Rs. 500 as a bribe.

The demand for Indian cattle is so great in Bangladesh that a large number of gohats (cattle markets) have come up all over Murshidabad, especially in villages near the international border. The Baharampur subdivision alone has 17 gohats, and the government has no control over the transactions except in three gohats where a permit is required to take the cattle within eight kilometres of the border.

One of the authorised gohats is in Beldanga, 20 km from Baharampur town, where nearly 3,000 head of cattle are sold every Tuesday. “ The business is worth Rs. 1.2 crore,” said Abhijit Mazumdar, licensing inspector of Beldanga’s regulated market committee, which issues the permit.

The permit costs just Rs. 4 per animal and helps the conniving BSF personnel get off the hook. “The permit business has become a recket,” said a district administrator. “People are being allowed to smuggle out hundreds of animals on the strength of one permit. Who can distinguish between two cows of the same colour?

The law enforcers extract their pound of flesh whether the cattle seller has a permit or not. “we have to pay the local price of Rs. 50 per cow and the BSF people Rs. 500, “ said Inrish, the graduate cattle smuggler. “And then at the last stage, the customs officials have to be bribed.” Yet it is good business: cattle account for Rs. 200 crore of the total smuggled wealth worth Rs. 1,000 crore.

In a ‘top secret’ note, the government recently admitted that the rampant smuggling of cattle was clearly on the increase. So is the smuggling of Bangladeshis into Murshidabad. “At least six lakh illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have taken shelter in the district in the last 16 years,” said a police officer. “It is very easy to smuggle in any number of people and the smugglers only have to pay half the bribe that cattle runners pay.”

Murshidabad, which has become a smugglers’ mecca, had 29.54 lakh people in 1981. By the next census six years ago the figure had risen to 47.40 and according to present estimates the population is around 52 lakh.

If the population has risen alarmingly so has the crime graph. The district registered as many as 147 murders in 1994, three dozen more the next year and 187 lat year. There has been no let-up; the first four months of the current year saw 55 murders. The number of dacoties, robberies and thefts has also increased manifold in the last two decades.

The rise in crime, particularly murder, is believed to be due to the population explosion in a small district; Murshidabad is just 5,324 square kilometers. “It you study the case reports of all these murders,” said a police officer, “You will find that a dispute over land or dowry was at the root of the problem. And in this district dowry is often a plot of land.”

The Beef Route: Cows from Beldanga may end up on an Arab plate

The massive influx from Bangladesh has inevitably altered the demographic profile of the district, where the Muslims now constitute nearly 70% of the population.
Perhaps Murshidabad is the only district in the country, besides those in Kashmir, where the Muslims have so overwhelming a presence.
The international border exists only on paper on most stretches and almost every family in the border villages has relatives on the Bangladesh side. Naturally it is quite easy for an illegal immigrant to find shelter on Indian soil. The host soon introduces him to the panchayat officials, who readily recommend a ration card for him, thus helping him pass off as an Indian.
It is because of the tremendous increase in population that smuggling has become the principal vocation of the jobless young men in Murshidabad. The district has no industry worth mentioning and the sudden scarcity of land has shattered its agrarian economy. “The smugglers are now controlling the economy of the districts,” said a politician. Almost everything is smuggled out of the district – rice, pulses, sugar, edible oil, kerosene, diesel.
As the government admitted in its “top secret” note, “ A large number of people in the border areas are directly or indirectly associated with smuggling.” The most porous part of the border falls in seven villages – Samsergunj, Suti, Raghunathgunj, Lalgola, Bhagawangola, Raninagar and Jalangi. Besides, there are 31 illegal ghats on the riverine border from where the goods are ferried to Bangladesh. Local politicians, police and BSF personnel get a cut of the profits.

The politicians have another reason for helping the smugglers of illegal immigrants: they can use the immigrants to strengthen their power base after getting them into the voters’ list. An the police and the BSF personnel abet the smugglers and thrive on bribes in the knowledge that the politicians will never turn against their vote banks.
“Every second house in our villages is a smugglers’ den,” said a school teacher of Baharampur town. “It appears that no one has any authority, moral or legal, to come out against smuggling. Some of the smugglers are members of panchayats and one smuggler was recently elected to the legislative assembly.” He has no doubt that politicians who are not smugglers are indirect beneficiaries of the most lucrative business in Murshidabad.

The change in the demographic profile, couple with the rising crime rate, in the border district may be fraught with grave danger. “ I have a feeling,: said a judicial officer, “that we are sitting on a powder keg.”

-TAPASH GANGULY in Beharampur

The perilous policy of Meat Export

43. India has been exporting meat and other livestock products since 1973-74. The annual exports were around 2000 tonnes in the year 1973-73, which increased to 60,000 tonnes by the year 1987-88 and now they are close to 3,00,00 metric tonnes. The Government patronage to this sector started in the year 1992-93, when the Congress Government under Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao declared meat exports a ‘thrust area’ for earning foreign exchange. Ever since 1992-93, the Government is aggressively pushing up meat exports, providing financial assistance, a number of subsidies and incentives, besides various administrative reliefs. The Government also set up an autonomous authority by an Act of Parliament in the year 1986, named the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which gives capital assistance and also helps Indian meat exporters in marketing their products abroad. Even when other industries were in the shackles of bureaucratic controls, meat exports were freed from licensing controls. A new Ministry called Ministry of Food Processing Industry was created by the Central Government to look after the needs of the processed foods industry, including meat processing.

44. Meat export has taken a heavy toll on the precious cattle wealth of the nation and has adversely affected cattle based agro economy of the country. For the record, it may be noted that ‘beef’ i.e. flesh of the cow family animals is so far on the negative list of exports under the Export Import Policy of the Government. (There was a suggestion at one of the meetings of the Working Group on Animal Husbandry, set up by the Planning Commission’s for the 10th Five Year Plan, to remove this restriction! Fortunately, this has not been actually recommended by the Working Group).

45. Though the Western countries rear animals specifically for the purpose of slaughter, Indian beef and meat is preferred abroad as it is low in fat and relatively free from poisonous chemicals. In Western countries animals are given growth hormone injections to increase their body weight for larger meat yield. They are also fed on non-vegetarian cattle feed made of abattoir waste. This has led to the occurrence of BSE or mad-cow disease, which can be transmitted to human beings through the beef they consume. This fatal disease has occurred in United Kingdom and other European countries, while India is free from this disease, as our cattle are not fed on the meat and bones of other animals. In developed countries, the cattle are also given heavy doses of anti-biotic injections to keep them disease free. Human beings who eat the beef become immune to the effects of the antibiotics and thus become prone to the infections, which these anti-biotics are meant to control. The feed and fodder given to the slaughter animals in these countries is grown with the help of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, the residues of which enter the bodies of the animals and form part of the meat. In addition, there is large expatriate population of Indians in Gulf countries who prefer Indian meat.

46. Once having declared meat export as a thrust area, the Government of India has not thereafter reviewed this policy in the past almost one decade, nor has it studied the adverse effects of this policy on the livestock population, availability and price of milk and the effect on agriculture and allied activities. The present Bharatiya Janata Party Government at the Centre, which was in opposition when the Congress Government declared the meat export policy had vehemently opposed it in the Parliament, as well as in public. It had given indications that, on coming to power, it will ban meat export from the country. In fact, in their National Executive meeting, in the year 2000, the Bharatiya Janata Party had given directions to the Government of its own Party to ban meat export from the country. Similarly, the Animal Welfare Board of India, an autonomous Body under the Government of India, had also recommended banning of meat export in its 67th Executive Committee meeting. In addition, the Law Commission of India in its 157th Report had also recommended banning of meat export from the country. Overlooking all these recommendations and suggestions, the Government has not yet taken any step in this direction, despite numerous representations, delegations etc. both from members of Public/NGOs/Animal Welfare Activists, as well as from some of its own Ministers and Party functionaries. Defying the wish of the entire nation, despite functioning as a democracy, the Government has been singularly immune to the demand for banning meat exports.

47. Under the Indian Constitution, Animal Husbandry is a State subject and the Centre has not enacted any law for preservation, protection or welfare of animals except that antiquated piece of toothless legislation called ‘Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960’. (The Government is also sitting tight on the proposal to amend this law for the last three years). The State laws enacted by various States are devised in such a way that they promote slaughter rather than curb it. The criteria made applicable for slaughterable animals are only on statute books and are rampantly flouted. In many Acts there are age-based restrictions for animals that can be slaughtered. In many cases such prescribed ages are between 12 to 16 years. However, there is an inherent contradiction between the legal situation and the demand of export markets. Export markets demand meat of young and healthy animals so that it is tasty and disease--free. The local laws permit slaughter of only aged animals. This contradiction is unbridgeable and the demands of the export market obviously prevail, whereby the country is loosing its productive, precious animals. The corruption bred on the sidelines is also unimaginable.

48. The Livestock Census is a quinquennial exercise and, every 5 years, the States are supposed to conduct the Census. The State figures are consolidated at the national level and the last such consolidated figures at the National level are available only for the year 1992. Thereafter, figures at the National level are not available and it is anybody’s guess as to what is the livestock population of the country. May be the population has dwindled so much that the Government is wary of publishing the figures! Nonetheless, under the direction of FAO, all Government documents start with the stereo-type rhetoric that India has the largest livestock population.

49. The value of meat exported from the country has been growing by leaps and bounds, as the following figures indicate.

Export of Meat and Meat Products from India

	Buffalo Meat		Goat/Sheep Meat		T o t a l
Year	Qty.	Value	Qty.	Value	Qty.	Value
1976-77	8302	665	3119	402	16644	1474
1977-78	18595	1461	6837	915	28167	2992
1978-79	15911	1271	7106	999	25595	2497
1979-80	25937	2229	6790	894	35586	3506
1980-81	41732	3750	1383	200	47758	4981
1981-82	46397	4668	7826	1321	58186	7015
1982-83	38352	7142	N.A.	N.A.	40374	7530
1983-84	32908	6338	N.A.	N.A.	34465	6636
1984-85	34588	4346	13385	272	50561	5023
1985-86	10579	2408	24551	3774	37330	6694
1986-87	36064	4584	9378	2297	46888	7488
1987-88	51540	6704	7960	2191	59500	9395
1988-89	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.	9800
1989-90	65000	8500	9000	3500	N.A.	12000
1998-99	153956	N.A.	8648	N.A.	N.A.	69130
1999-00	167291	70642	12419	9090	N.A.	79732
2000-01	288027	N.A.	11932	N.A.	N.A.	137504

Note : Quantity in M.T.; Value in Rs. Lakh, Total includes other meat products also besides buffalo meat and goat/sheep meat. Source : APEDA and Ministry of Food Processing Industry

The figures of total meat production (Quantity in M.T.) in the country are as under:

Year Buffalo Meat Mutton & Goat meat

1993 11,82,000 6,23,000

1994 12,00,000 6,36,000

1995 12,04,000 6,47,000

1996 12,04,000 6,69,000

Source: `India’ Series publication of Govt. of India

50. Not satisfied with this indiscriminate slaughter of animals, the Planning Commission has grand plans to increase it further and convert the entire country gradually into a country of slaughter houses. In a Chapter entitled “Review of Past Performance and Assessment of Future Needs”, which is part of its Report, the Working Group on Animal Husbandry and Dairying, set up by the Planning Commission to prepare proposals for the 10th Five Year Plan, has reported that a ban on meat exports, as demanded by a number of organisations would not be in the interest of livestock producers nor in the national interest. An extract from the Report of the Working Group is at Annex III (3). The relevant extracts from the report of the Panel No. XI on the Meat Sector of the Working Group are given at Annex III (4).

51. The Working Group on Animal Husbandry and Dairying, which in turn formed 15 sub-Groups, including one on the Meat Sector. One would be horrified to read the report, which recommends an aggressive thrust to increase the slaughter rates, modernisation of existing slaughter houses, setting up more and more mechanised slaughter houses, removal of the impediments in the export of meat and recommends various steps in those directions ! One need not be surprised by these recommendations of the meat sector Sub-Group, because there were large meat-exporters as the Members of this Group, including the Chairman. The terms of reference of the sub-group are also worded with a heavy bias in favour of meat exports and read as under:
a) To critically examine the constraints affecting development of organised meat sector for sustainable animal production.
b) To suggest measures necessary for promoting meat exports.
c) To assess the policies presently in force and changes needed to meet global challenge.

52. The whole Report of the Meat Sector sub-Group goes against the campaign to ban meat export from the country and this has to be resisted lest it becomes part of the Plan itself. Meat exports have dealt a death- blow to the economy of the Nation to satiate the greed of a handful of people, with the tacit support, patronage and encouragement of the Government. This approach needs to be resisted tooth and nail, to force the Government to drop its plans in the field of meat export.

53. The chemical fertiliser lobby, the meat lobby and the leather export lobby have common vested interests and appear to have formed a cartel, which has a stranglehold on the Government and the bureaucracy. The hue and cry of the entire nation to ban meat exports is stone-walled by these powerful lobbies.

54. No comparative study has been made about the advantages and disadvantages of meat exports. In India, animals are reared primarily for the benefits derived from their dung. If the meat export policy is evaluated only on the basis of utility of dung, it would prove that banning meat export is more in the interest of the country than earning a thousand crore rupees of foreign exchange. This will be proved by the following analysis.
Some Startling facts about loss due to meat export

55. Considering the broad product-mix of export of meat (buffalo meat and sheep/goat mutton) in the project of M/s. Al-Kabeer Exports Ltd., it has been calculated that 67 lac buffaloes and 36 lac sheep/goats are required to be slaughtered annually, in order to meet the projected 10th Five Year Plan target of annual export earning of Rs.2,000 crores. Taking the calculations involved in study on Al-Kabeer, which are supported by information/statistics contained in official sources, the following calculations gives extrapolated figures for the increased number of animals to be slaughtered on the national or Macro level, during the 10th Plan period.
Economic Loss due to loss of Buffalo dung :

A total of 67 lakh buffaloes are required to be slaughtered for annual earning of Rs. 2000/- crores. Assuming that a buffalo could live for another 5 years before its natural death and that one buffalo produces 5.4 tons of dung per annum, then:

Availability of dung from 67 lakh buffaloes for a period of 5 years @ 5.4 tons/annum will be

= 67 lakh x 5.4 x 5 = 1809 lakh tons.

Farmyard manure that can be made out of this dung will be= 1809 x 2 = 3618 lakh tons.

Land that can be cultivated using this farmyard manure will be 482.4 lakh hectares.

Foodgrains that can be produced on these 482.4 lac hectares of land will be 666.68 lakh tons, without the major cost of chemical fertilisers.

The total value of foodgrains thus produced will be Rs.27,592.42 crores.

Fodder which can be produced as bye-product of the above foodgrain production will be 20,000 lakh tons, sufficient to feed 555.57 lakh buffaloes for a year.

The above quantum of foodgrains produced at substantially low cost can meet the foodgrain needs of 37 crore human beings for a year.

Employment generation from dung of buffaloes
(An alternate advantage)

Wet dung available from 67 lakh buffaloes @ 5.4 tons/annum will be 362.40 lakh tonnes.
Dry dung available will be 181.20 lakh tonnes (taking 50% as loss of humus content and the portion of dung which is not collectable)

From 181.20 lakh tons of dry dung, 1812 crore dung cakes may be prepared (each weighing 1 kg.)
These dung cakes are saleable at prices varying from 25 to 50 paise each in villages and at Rs.1/1.50 each in towns. Even taking the lowest price (0.25 paise), the value of these dung cakes will be Rs.453 crore.
In villages, mainly women are engaged in collection of dung and selling the dung cakes. Taking Rs.250 per month as sustenance income for one woman in rural area for livelihood, she has to sell around 1000 dung cakes per month and 12,000 per year. So out of 1812 crore dung cakes, 15.10 lakh women can earn sufficient amount for their livelihood.

Employment generation from sheep

a) For the above product mix, and to meet the projected targets of export earnings, 36 lakh sheep are required to be slaughtered. Presuming that 18 lakh were male and 18 lakh were female, then milk yield from 18 lakh female sheep can provide employment to 72,000 persons (based on field study conducted by experts, it is found that one female goat can generate net income of Rs.120 p.a. and the same basis may be adopted for earning from female sheep. (Ref. wool and woollens of India, Jan. - Mar. 1993, page 30)
b) Wool available from 36 lac sheep will be 54 lac kg/annum @ 1.5 kg. per annum per sheep. Current prices of raw wool are Rs. 60 per kg. So total value of wool yield from 36 lac sheep comes to around Rs.32.40 crores, which is sufficient to provide employment to 1,08,000 (1.08 lakh) persons.

Thus total employment/livelihood generation from the animals to be slaughtered will be;
i) Employment from dung of buffaloes = 15.10 lakh
ii) Employment from milk of sheep      = 0.72 “
iii) Employment from wool of sheep     = 1.08 “

                                                    Total 16.90 lakh

Buffalo Dung as fuel (An alternate advantage)

If the entire quantity of dung which is available from buffaloes i.e. 362.40 lakh tons per annum is used to meet the fuel needs alone, then dry dung that may be available will be 181.20 lac tons in the form of dung cakes.
Presuming that 10 kg. of dung cakes can suffice daily fuel need of a family comprising 5 members, then 181.20 lac tons can provide fuel to 49.64 lac families per annum.

A family comprising of 5 members will need 1 cylinder /month i.e. 12 per year and the total cost will be 12 x 240 = Rs. 2,880 per annum. So 49.64 lac families will have to spend 49.64 lac x 2880 = Rs.1429.63 crores.
By-product of this fuel will be ash, which can be used for cleaning utensils. People have to spend around Rs. 200 p.a. on cleaning powders to clean utensils. Thus 49.64 lac families will have to spend 49.64 lac x 200 = Rs. 99.28 crores for cleaning powder.

Total Saving from using dung as fuel                         Rs.1429.63 crore
from using dung ash as cleaning powder                   Rs.    99.28 crore
                                                                          —————————
Total Saving                                                            Rs.1528.91 crore
                                                                                ==============

In the absence of L.P.G. or kerosene, villagers cut trees for their daily firewood requirement. Since dung of one buffalo per annum is equivalent to fuel obtained by cutting 6 trees, 67 lakh buffaloes will save 4.20 crore trees annually. The ecological advantage of this is incalculable.

Meat exports and water
As per the report of an export-oriented mechanised slaughter house, it requires 5 lakh litres of water /day for producing 5000 tons of meat p.a. Taking 300 working days, the total water requirement will be 1500 lakh litres for 5000 tons i.e. production of 1 kg. of meat requires 30 litres of water.

The annual meat production would be
                       67 lakh buffaloes x 75 kg. = 5.025    lakh tons
                       36 lakh sheep x 11        “ = 0.396        “ “
                                                             —————————-
                                                                 5.421 lakh tons

To produce 5.421 lakh tons of meat, the Nation has to squander 5.421 lakh tons x 30,000 litres = 1626.3 crores litres of water, which is sufficient for meeting annual drinking water needs of 90.35 lakh people (taking 5 litres per day as the average requirement of one person).

WHEN there is an acute drinking water shortage all over the country, as illustrated by the statistics of shortages of water in major cities of the country as shown below;