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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANSHIKA VARMA FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK
ECONOMICSThe $126 million program aims to upgrade the
health and genetics of the herd and improvedairy
farm incomes. The actions of some of the gov-
ernment’s supporters may be blunting the effort.
Last year 11 people died in attacks by cow vigilan-
tes—the deadliest year since IndiaSpend, a data-
journalism website, began tracking the hate crimes
in 2010. “On suspicion that there might have been
a slaughter of a cow, all these people who are
going about their business legitimately are at risk
of being targeted,” says Meenakshi Ganguly, South
Asia director for Human Rights Watch. Modi has
publicly condemned the attacks.
Prohibitions on cattle slaughter deprive farmers
of more than 250 billion rupees of annual income
collectively and lead to 20 million abandoned
cows a year, according to D. John Chelladurai,
dean of the Gandhi Research Foundation in
Jalgaon, Maharashtra. “Forget about slaughter-
house transporters, even farmers can’t take their
cows or bulls from one village to the other,” says
Verma, the farmer in Uttar Pradesh. The state’s
leadership vowed in November to jail anyone
being cruel to cows, a month before calling for a
cow census and an expansion of cow sanctuaries,
such as the one outside New Delhi.Some 5,000 shelters have opened nationwide
since 2011 to house abandoned cows, according
to Pavan Pandit, national chairman of the cow
advocacy and protection organization Bhartiya
Gau Raksha Dal. He would prefer to see the aging
or injured animals remain on the farm. He says
traditional beliefs about cows are backed by sci-
ence: “A cow purifies the environment of a place
where it sits. Cows release oxygen.” (They don’t;
the animals do emit methane, a greenhouse gas
that contributes to global warming.)
At the Shri Krishna Gaushala, the 8,100 bovine
residents receive abundant feed and free veterinary
care, thanks to the generosity of the Hindu faith-
ful and Modi’s government, which has lavished at
least 5.8 billion rupees on the refuges. “This is the
government that believes that ‘cow is our mother,’ ”
says Chhagan Lal Gupta, the shelter’s 81-year-old
founder, while making the rounds between covered
pens in an electric, three-wheeled passenger cart.
“If we don’t get funding under this government,
we won’t ever get funding.”—Anindya Upadhyay,
Pratik Parija, Kanika Sood, and P R SanjaiTHE BOTTOM LINE The Indian government’s efforts to expand
the dairy supply are being blunted by its Hindu supporters, including
cow vigilantes, bent on stopping the sale of cattle for slaughter. Clockwise, from far
left: Families visit the
Shri Krishna Gaushala
to feed the livestock
○ Chhagan Lal Gupta
founded the sanctuary
with 13 cows in 1995
○ A few of the refuge’s
8,100 bovine residents
○ A calf chews on
freshly cut grass as it
falls from a fodder-
cutting machine