As he made his way from Garh Mukteshwar in Uttar Pradesh to Salahpur near Meerut, Jitender, a thirty something farmer, felt his courage slowly crumble. He had brought Rs 70,000 to buy a buffalo at Salahpur바카라s weekly farm-animal fair. But by the time he got there, he lost his nerve. 바카라I might be attacked by gau rakshaks,바카라 says Jitender, anxious about riding home with a buffalo, should he buy one. 바카라The rakshaks won바카라t care if my buffalo is for milking. They will accuse me of wanting to slaughter her,바카라 he says.
The fair at Salahpur has got, every Tuesday for twenty years, up to a thousand buffaloes. It caters to buyers from western UP, Rajasthan and Haryana. But this week, business fizzled out before it could even begin. By noontime, about 200 buffaloes and a dozen cows arrived.
바카라The market has dwindled since problems over slaughterhouses began some months ago. People became scared of transporting animals. Cow protection groups have terrified traders and the new rules make things worse,바카라 says Jabbar Ali, the market바카라s contractor.
Receipt for animals brought and sold in Salahpur mandi.
With rules for animal trade in perpetual flux, even sellers such as Riazul, a local resident, are ruffled. Riazul fattened his buffalo with feed worth Rs 250-300 daily and brought her to this fair. 바카라She gives 14 litres of milk,바카라 he says. 바카라We have little to eat at home. I have two children and a wife. I want to sell my buffalo but where are the buyers? Are they dead?바카라
They바카라re not quite dead, just stunned by circumstances. First, in April, UP branded most abattoirs illegal and closed them. Of the remaining, 42 are export-approved abattoirs and only four cater to local meat demand. Thus, retail trade in buffaloes all but stopped in UP. Now the central government has issued new rules for the entire country that prohibit trade in farm animals at markets바카라like at Salahpur바카라if the purpose is slaughter.
Salim prepares to take his buy, two buffaloes, to Meerut city
Under the new rules, along with the Rs 26,800-crore ($4.3 billion) meat export industry, the Rs 80,000-crore ($10 billion) dairy trade also feels threatened. Agents who trawl rural markets seeking healthy buffaloes in larger quantities for exporters, in particular, have stopped work.
Sirajuddin Qureshi, MD of Hind Group, a meat exporter, says importers have been persistently calling from overseas ever since the rules changed. 바카라They ask why India is fussing over buffaloes, which are not considered holy. They want to know if supplies will continue,바카라 he says. Meat exporters, he says, shunned trade in cows out of respect for Hindu sentiment. 바카라But now, after these new rules, exporters are in complete panic.바카라
As the latest rules seem to equate slaughter with cruelty, middlemen expect more, not less, vigilantism. This is what ultimately halts the business. In addition, for the first time, the rules address those buying farm animals for 바카라non-farm바카라 purposes. What this means is, meat exporters can no longer access animal markets for buffaloes. They would be forced to buy directly from farmers, putting them at more of a risk of being thrashed by vigilante groups바카라and making the task logistically impossible.
바카라Isn바카라t it cruel when seventy humans are packed in a bus meant for forty,바카라 asks Sami Qureshi, a buffalo trader from Barnawa, Baghpat. He feels the government is targeting Muslims, particularly Qureshis, by repeatedly drawing attention to slaughterhouses and meat exporters. 바카라If farm animals won바카라t be allowed to die, how will new supplies of animals come, who will care for them once they don바카라t give milk?바카라
The new rules, however, strictly say that buyers and sellers must certify that the animal is not for slaughter. Only those who can prove they are farmers can buy or sell them. There is a six-month cooling period when farmers are barred from reselling animals.
바카라How can sellers know what buyers will do with buffaloes afterwards? These rules are only to terrify us,바카라 says Haji Aslam, who heads the Meerut Dairy Association. Big, overfed buffaloes, which are washed and polished to oily blackness at markets like Salahpur are failing to tempt buyers as a result. The buffalo market has all but collapsed. The other impact is being felt in villages where trade in buffalo is the only source of income, like Mandhiyai near Sardhana, which hosts one of the biggest regional farm fairs.
A trader awaits buyers for his buffalo and calf
Shabbir, only 15, was taking buffaloes to the slaughterhouse in Delhi바카라s Ghazipur last week. 바카라We were caught and thrashed by gau rakshaks near Delhi바카라s border. They took our animals,바카라 he says. Kamruddin, another resident whose sons buy buffaloes from farmers in Haryana, says they are running out of money for food. His wife, Nanhi, says, 바카라What do we eat but potatoes and rice? It바카라s become unsafe to do the work we did for generations.바카라 The families in Mandhiyai are 75 per cent Muslim, most landless and all linked with the farm animal trade.
바카라Mandhiyai바카라s market did badly this week because Haryana did not send enough buffaloes here. We hardly got fifty percent of the usual supply,바카라 says Haji Babu, who owns the market. Haji Jameel, pradhan, Mandhiyai, says, 바카라Five thousand people here depend on this work. If their only source of income goes, what will they do but rob and loot? It바카라s a very anxious time with the rules constantly turning against us.바카라
Jitender (centre) explains his plight
The meat export trade is also closely aligned with the Rs 40,000-crore leather trade, dominated by Dalit workers. In all, it is the Qureshis who have taken the lead among leather traders and meat exporters, followed by Hindus and Jains. As head of the Jamaitul Quresh, the community바카라s apex body, Sirajuddin Qureshi also has to deal with anxious members of the 15 million Qureshis in the buffalo trade.
바카라I really don바카라t believe the new rules match the Prime Minister바카라s statements. He talks of creating employment but these rules will render jobless five crore people engaged in meat export, buffalo transport, skinning and the leather trade,바카라 he says. The most shocking aspect of the new rules, he feels, is that the meat exporters, transporters and traders were never once consulted. 바카라How is it possible to change rules outright without notice?바카라
India exports roughly 11-13 lakh tonnes of meat annually out of which 95 per cent is buffalo meat. The export had generally been surging. That said, according to government statistics, the female buffalo population has also been surging. And, only ten per cent of the buffalo population ever heads for slaughterhouses.
Often, meat exporters work on advance agreements with farmers, who agree to sell their dry she-buffaloes or unwanted males at pre-arranged dates. Those deals, according to traders, will keep supplies going for another fortnight or a month. After that, unless the government excludes buffaloes from the latest rules, there won바카라t be any left to slaughter바카라and fewer for dairying.
바카라I think the government will rethink. These rules can바카라t be here to stay. They are a mistake,바카라 says Ali, mustering optimism. But the problem shows up in the shape of fear. 바카라Buyers are too scared. They want to select animals in Salahpur and then want us to deliver them home. But even we don바카라t want to go afar,바카라 says Ikram, a transporter-trader from Rohta village.
Om Prakash Pal, a landless farmer from Pabali Khas, wants a buffalo to replace one gone dry, which he has sold. He says, 바카라The government should think about a landless farmer. How will he live if he can바카라t even buy a buffalo without risking his life?바카라
By Pragya Singh and Jitender Gupta in western UP
