Visakhapatnam: The Simachalam temple authorities are adopting the pure Indian breed of cows, while other mixed breed calves are left in the street for being “unholy”.
It is a custom in the temple that the devotees offer calves to the temple. The founder of Visakha Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, Pradip Kumar Kath, said that many of these calves are no more than a few days old. They are mostly male as they do not produce milk, therefore useless to their owners.
They are dragged up 1,000 stairs and left tied to a temple steeple or a tree. Hundreds of calves are offered to the temple every day and temple authorities cannot accommodate them.
Most of these are abandoned as they are not pure Indian breed, thus labelled unholy by the temple authorities. “Pure Indian cows are rare. All we find are jersey cows and mixed breeds. These abandoned cows are stolen or become strays in cities,” said Mr Nath.
“We cannot stop devotees from offering calves, it is their basic right,” said a temple official. The civic body, which should have taken action against the stray cattle, says that it is not doing anything since, “temple authorities are taking care of the cows”.
These calves then stray on city roads. Hardly any region of the city is cattle free nowadays. According to the A.P. Prohibition of Cow Slaughter and Animal Preservation Act of 1977, the auctioning or sale of calves is illegal.
The temple authorities said that in no way can they accommodate so many calves in their goshala as they already have thousands of them. “We cannot stop devotees from offering calves, it is their basic right,” said the official.
Though the annual donation of male calves by devotees to the Simhachalam temple has come down drastically from around 15,000 to around 4,000 over the past years, the problem remains.
Meanwhile, GVMC authorities, who should have taken measures against the cattle problem, said that it is currently not doing anything since “The temple authorities are taking good care of the cows,” said GVMC chief medical officer Dr MS Raju.
The civic body, which should have taken action against the stray cattle, says that it is not doing anything since, “temple authorities are taking care of the cows,” The reality is evidently anything but that.
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Previously the temple authorities used to auction these cows which was illegal. After much protest it has stopped now.
Various animal lover organizations are rescuing these calves and donating them to the tribal people of the state, who use these calves to till land. However, many of the calves are only a couple of days old and they can hardly walk. Due to that the distribution process is hindered.
VSPCA alone rescued almost 7,000 calves.
Many of these calves are stolen and sold to illegal meat shop owners and also smuggled to Bangladesh.
In 2013 seven people including the superintendent in-charge of the Simhachalam temple goshala, K. Gopinath, were arrested by the police after they were caught illegally transporting 12 male calves from the goshala.
