Ongole: The iconic Ongole Kapila bulls breed has found a new protector in K.V. Tirupati Raju, a farmer from Kolamuru in West Godavari district. His three-year-old Ongole Kapila bull has mated with over 200 cows.
Kapila cows give 15 litres milk per day in peak time and 12 litres during ordinary days. This cow's milk is considered good for health. Some people consume the urine of Kapila cows.
Owing to this, Tirupati Raju's family has been raising the bulls for the last 50 years in his village. His uncle Punapu Raju Venkata Krishnam Raju started raising cows decades ago.
Tirupati Raju started raising Ongole Kapila cows for milk in the last three years. At present he is raising six cows. He takes half of the cows' milk and leaves the remaining for the calves.
Mr Raju said, "There are less than 10 Kapila cows in West Godavari district. There is a need to protect the breed. It has a good hump compared to other cows. It has complete black skin. Its milk has good taste. People believe its urine helps control blood pressure, sugar and heart diseases."
"People from surrounding villages visit Raju's house to see the Kapila cows," said V.R. Ramesh, a software engineer from Hyderabad. He has launc-hed an initiative called Desi Cow Breed Saving.
"In the past we had more than 30 different indigenous cow breeds. But at present there are less than 20 and that too not as pure as earlier," he said, adding, "Kapila has very unique colour like black without any spots. There are different types of Kapila breeds as per experts, i.e., Kapila Ongole and Kapila Tharparkar etc. Due to its commercial value lots of people sell cows having the same colour as Kapila. Lastly Kapila is considered as holy cow among desi cows. The TTD performs abhishekam with the holy Kapila cow milk."
Mr Ramesh added that various cow breeds are getting diminished due to cross breeding which is resulting in low milk yielding calves, which eventually are sent to slaughterhouse. To bridge this gap, we are creating awareness about cow breeds among those raising cows.
