Through majority of the Indian population follows vegetarianism, the number of slaughterhouses in the country are more than milk processing factories and liquid milk plants combined.
While India has 1,623 registered slaughterhouses, there are only 213 registered milk processing factories and 793 liquid milk plants.
The data was revealed in an RTI reply from the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
Interestingly, Maharashtra, where ban on meat caused a political storm last year has the maximum number of slaughterhouses – 316 followed by Uttar Pradesh (285) and Tamil Nadu (130).
Indian meat industry involves trading live animals and slaughtering animals like buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs, bullocks, poultry and cows. The country recently witnessed a heightened political backlash over cow slaughter due to the religious importance of the animal. In many cases, when meat, other than that of cow, held sacred by the Hindus and a matter of conflict between the community and others, hassled to several altercations and even riots.
In Haryana, locals apprehended trucks when meat other than cow was being transported leading to law and order situations. The BJP also tried to make cow slaughter an emotive issue to appeal to Hindu sentiments during the Bihar elections. However, 24 out of the 29 states in India currently have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows. Kerala, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are the states where there is no restriction on cow slaughter.
Even these states have slaughterhouses Kerala (55), West Bengal (11), Sikkim (4) and Mizoram (2) where cows can be slaughtered legally. “This isvery surprising that the country has more meat producing units than milk producing units. The government seems more interested in issuing licences to more slaughterhouses and lesser milk production units,” said Ramesh Verma, who filed the RTI.
According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, despite big potential because of large livestock population, the meat industry has not taken its due share on account of negative perceptions. Although India has acquired number one status in the world, contributing 13 per cent (117 million tonnes) of the world’s total milk production, the meat production which jibes well with dairying is still lagging behind and is at fifth position (6.3 million tonnes).
“The number which the government has provided is not even half the actual number of slaughterhouses being run in the country. There are thousands of illegal and unregistered slaughterhouses and the meat which most of the people consume is sold through these units,” said Dr Avinash Srivastava, veterinary expert and technical head, Wellcon Animal Health. “This is very concerning because the meat they provide is very unhealthy as there is no government regulation of these units. They may sell diseased animals or animals fed on antibiotics which may cause serious ill effects on the human body,” he said.
Source : IndiaToday
