Make cow rearing urban trend: Dr Vallabh Kathiria

Keeping cows is an emerging trend in urban areas where families with farmhouses have started rearing the cattle for its milk, said Dr Vallabh Kathiria, chairman of Gau Seva Ayog, Gujarat.

"It's like going back to the basics but in a scientific manner. We have received a good response from several industrialists and businessmen who are jointly raising cows on their farmhouses. They now have access to pure cow milk," Kathiria said.

Cows are seen as a traffic menace in urban areas but this may soon change. The Ayog is promoting many projects to make them popular among city-dwellers.

"There was a time that not only cow-rearers (gaupalaks) but other sections of society, including upper class Brahmins and Jains, kept cows at their homes. Now we want to spread the awareness that cows can be economically viable and more beneficial than pets," Kathiria said.

He said that the Ayog had persuaded some industrialists and businessmen in Bhavnagar who had a lot of farmland to keep cows on their farmhouses. Kathiria said that they had made them aware of the greater nutritional value of cow milk and persuaded them to have small cowsheds on their farms.

"Nearly a dozen people agreed accepted our suggestion and today all of them are enjoying pure cow milk. The cows are being raised on their farm in hygienic conditions," he said.

Kathiria said that the greater nutritional qualities of cow milk were not as well known as they should be. "Most people think that cow milk is like any other milk but that is not true. It is far more nutritious than, say, buffalo's milk. Cow milk has 28 types of amino acids, minerals and vitamins. Hence, we are talking to dairies to market cow milk, not on the basis of how much fat it has, but on the basis of the many other qualities that only cow milk has," he said.

He added that the Ayog wanted dairies to sell cow milk in separate packs mentioning the nutritional qualities of the milk and priced according to those qualities and not its fat content. The Ayog is focusing on an integrated approach to making cow rearing economically viable. "Gaumutra (cow urine) is useful as it is used in many ayurvedic medicines, cow dung can be used as a natural eco-friendly bio-fertiliser and bio-pesticide, and also a source of energy with the use of gobar-gas plants," Kathiria said.

He further said that the Ayog was spreading awareness through seminars and workshops organised in colleges and through UDISHA lecture series in rural areas to encourage rural youth to adopt cow-rearing as a full-time profession.