The Indian Army closed its British-era cattle farms two years ago, but the cows never left. Sources said on Saturday that as the Army could not find buyers for its cattle, it has had to allocate Rs 280 crore for maintenance of farms this year.
"The allocation has been made to take care of the cattle alongside maintenance of acres of land and pay the salaries of the staff," said a senior Indian Army officer.
The officer said that there are over a 1,000 employees who maintain these 39 farms spread across 20,000 acres, whose salaries have to be paid. To add it its woes, after the farms were closed, the Army also had to engage the services of many contractual civilians.
Before the shuttering of the farms two years ago, the force had approximately 25,000 cows at these shelters, but the biggest problem faced has been the sale of the cattle. Over these couple of years, the Army has only managed to sell 10,000 cows, while they still have over 15,000 cows that need regular upkeep.
These farms have the Frieswal breed of cows — known for maximum milk yields — and usually cost around Rs 1 lakh, but most of the cows were sold to state governments and other departments for a meagre Rs 1,000. "It is very difficult to sell the cattle. Finding buyers has been a challenging task and we have been issuing tenders every week, but we rarely find buyers who will take care of the cattle," said the officer, adding that they cannot sell the cattle to anyone, as there are chances of the animals falling into the hands of illegal traffickers. "We have to thoroughly check the antecedents of the buyers. So we prefer to sell them to government organisation and bodies," reasoned the officer.
He also said that there have been offers from the state governments for rehabilitation of these cows, but no interest in purchasing them.
Paradise Lost
There are over a 1,000 employees who maintain these 39 farms spread across 20,000 acres. Here, till two years ago, the Army maintained over 25,000 cows
