Crackdown on Meat Processing Plants

Why in news?

UP ruling party’s election manifesto has promised to shut down all illegal slaughterhouses and place curbs on all mechanical abattoirs in the state.

What does it mean?

• There is no confusion in the first part. All things illegal, by definition, have to be shut down.
• But, the ambiguity lies in the part concerning mechanical, presumably legal slaughterhouses.
• While there can be no plausible objection to the regulation of any industry, whether that is the stated intention here cannot be said for sure.

How valid is the claim about declining livestock population?

• The Sankalp Patra only makes a claim about UP’s livestock wealth suffering depletion, while linking this to illegal smuggling and slaughtering of animals.
• But, data from successive Livestock Censuses show a consistent increase in UP’s total buffalo population: from 189.96 lakh in 1997 to 306.25 lakh in 2012.
• On the other hand, the state’s cattle numbers have fallen from 200.16 lakh in 1997 to 195.57 lakh in 2012.
• What is interesting, however, is a significant jump in the female cattle population.

What can we infer?

• First, there’s little evidence of a reduction in UP’s livestock wealth.
• It has to do with buffalo milk fetching a better price due to its higher fat content.
• Secondly, among both cattle and buffaloes, there is a particularly sharp increase in female animals.
• The increased female bovine population also explains why UP’s milk production has not suffered despite the boom in buffalo meat exports.
• The state’s milk output has gone up too, according to the Union Agriculture Ministry.
• Finally, the existence of slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, means farmers find it easier to dispose of unproductive and old buffaloes, as opposed to cattle.
• Either way, it is the farmer, not the slaughterhouse owners or buffalo meat exporters, who should be held responsible for the perceived loss of cattle wealth in UP.
• If farmers have no mechanism to replace old animals, they may not find livestock rearing and milk production viable in the first place.

Source: The Indian Express