Holy Cow! More Than 100 Cows Die in Muzaffarnagar of UP

Lucknow: The cow-loving government of Uttar Pradesh seems to have failed in protecting the “holy” cows in the state, as hundreds of them have died in Muzaffarnagar district of the state over a period of last two-three days.

According to the police sources, over hundred cows were found dead in a field in Khadar area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Bhopa police station, on Sunday. The death toll of cows kept increasing till late Monday night.

A team of four veterinary doctors was set up by the chief veterinary officer, and was sent to the spot for examining the dead bodies of the bovines. The postmortem of a few cows was done yesterday and of the rest will be done today, said senior doctor, Dr Harendra Singh, from the team, while speaking with Newsclick.

“It is not possible to derive any conclusion from the dead bodies. We are waiting for the postmortem report to know the cause of death. We have preserved viscera samples for chemical testing as many of the dead bodies have been buried by the villagers,” he added.

One Satyaveer, who lost his 16 cows to this unfortunate incident, said that the cattle used to graze at a specific spot during the day, but they did not return. When the villagers visited the field to check on them, they found all the cows dead.

“It seems like our cows were either electrocuted or were given poison,” he claimed.

Satyaveer also alleged that this can be work of a land mafia who “wants to acquire this land which is owned by the government”.

Amit Kumar, who works at the private gaushala (cow shelter), alleged that the land mafias seem to have sprayed pesticides in the fields due to which the cows have died.

“Over 50 cows from our Ashram (cow shelter) have died and we do not know the cause. We do not even have the manpower to bury all of them in the soil. The administration is also not helping,” he said, adding that proper compensation and all possible help should be given to the farmers who lost their cattle in this incident.

It is to be noted that the incident has happened just after the Yogi Adityanath-led state government of Uttar Pradesh allocated Rs 447 crore for setting up cow shelters under the state budget of the fiscal year 2019-20. The budget includes Rs 247 crores for maintenance of cow shelters in the rural areas while Rs 200 crores for the Kanha Gaushala Scheme. Notably, the state government has also levied a cow protection cess on the revenue of various departments including excise.

Earlier on Saturday, five cows had died due to cold in Shamli district in the state.