Where animals are dying by a thousand cuts

The issue of abandoned cattle, also known as "chutta jaanwar," in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has significant implications for both agriculture and wildlife. These cattle, a result of disrupted livestock policies, are decimating harvests and posing threats to wildlife in the biodiverse Terai region of UP.

Impact of Stray Cattle on Wildlife and Agriculture:

1. Stray Cattle Menace:With more than a million abandoned cattle decimating harvests and farm-based livelihoods, stray cattle have become a serious menace in Uttar Pradesh. These cattle were born out of the disruptions wrought on a functioning livestock economy by state policies and state-empowered vigilantes.
2. Toll on Wildlife:The impacts of stray cattle on wildlife populations in the biodiverse Terai areas of U.P., spanning the districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Bahraich, are significant. The presence of large numbers of cattle within farmlands and along forest boundaries is creating a large prey base that potentially facilitates the residence of tigers within farmlands, which creates fertile grounds for more conflicts.
3. Disease Transmission:The potential for large populations of unvaccinated free-ranging cattle to transmit diseases such as bovine tuberculosis and lumpy skin diseases to wild populations also remains underappreciated.

Farmers’ Dilemma and Innovative Solutions:

1. Farmers’ Beliefs:Farmers recognise stray cattle as a serious menace, even as they wrestle with their beliefs in the divinity of cows. Some of their newer convictions about the extra-ordinariness of cows rest uneasily alongside the recognition that in terms of utility, they are outmatched by buffaloes.
2. Changing Livelihoods:The ubiquitousness of tractors, the loss of grazing commons, changing aspirations, and rising input costs have made cattle rearing an increasingly impractical activity. Communities that were once pastoral have over the decades become largely agrarian, with livestock rearing primarily supporting their household needs.
3. Building Cow Shelters:Farmers are propounding innovative ideas to solve the issue. Popular among these is the suggestion that the government needs to build cow shelters, including within protected areas, to allow cattle to enjoy the forest air and readily available fodder.

Government’s Role and Challenges:

1. Government Property Perception:Like many landscapes with protected areas, communities in the Terai view the tiger reserves and wildlife as exclusive government property. They wish to see the stray cattle, which they refer to as “Yogi-Modi ki gay (Yogi-Modi’s cows)”, be cared for within the government’s protected area.
2. Environmental Change:Protected areas in the U.P. Terai are small, fragmented, and their most productive grasslands are declining due to environmental change. The future of several imperilled species depends on sustaining and enhancing these grassland areas.
3. Feasibility of Cow Shelters:Creating cow shelters within protected areas does not serve this end. While this has not yet been mooted as a possibility by the government, given recent trends, and the fact that the U.P. government spends more on feeding stray cattle than on pensions for widows and the elderly, it is not implausible.

UPSC Mains Questions:

Q. Discuss the socio-economic and environmental impacts of abandoned cattle on agricultural and wildlife sectors in India.