New Delhi: The ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter threatens $4 billion in annual beef exports and millions of jobs if the government does not revoke the stoppage decreed last week, according to two industry officials.
In the latest setback to the meat industry, the government decreed animal markets will only be able to trade cattle for agricultural purposes such as ploughing and dairy production.
Vigilante groups have been increasingly asserting themselves since the government came to power. Most of India’s beef comes from water buffalo rather than cows, which are considered holy by Hindus, but local cattle traders and slaughterhouses have repeatedly come under attacks from activist groups that oppose the meat trade.
“In the garb of the order that prohibits the trading of cattle at organised markets, the government has tried to impose a ban on the meat industry,” Abdul Faheem Qureshi, head of the Muslim All India Jamiatul Quresh Action Committee, told Reuters.
