Dead cows make up for Rs 1,200-crore business in Gujarat

The latest roar surrounding cow-flesh trade has made everyone take notice of something that has apparently existed in the country for centuries.

"Everyone wants to use leather products, but will beat up the guy who gets it out of the dead animal for them," says Hirabhai Chavda, a third-generation businessman dealing in cow flesh. Based in Saurashtra, Chavda skins dead carcasses of cows, and has been doing so for years, but it’s only recently that he has started to face a threat from the so-called cow protectors.

"Everything that comes from a dead cow is used," Hirabhai told ET. "While meat is consumed, the leather is sold to the industry, so are bones and hooves," he adds.

"Earlier, when the market was good, leather would be sold for Rs 800. Now it barely fetches Rs 500 a piece. Then there is bone. Each carcass would get as much as 10 kg of bones, which brings about Rs 10 per kg. In case of a good animal, you also get 5-6 kg fat, which is sold for Rs 20 per kg," he adds.

The business of these carcasses is so well-established that there is an elaborate system for disposing off the carcasses, essentially manned by the people belonging to the Rohit community. As per the system, ‘Bham’, a group of few families belonging to the Rohit community, bids for the clearance of dead animals with the local panjrapoles.

This leads to each bham getting about six to seven dead animals per day, eventually giving them Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 of monthly income per person.

"Earlier, we used to tan the leather in villages but now with big players coming up, we only skin the animal, apply salt and send them to tanneries in Kanpur, Kolkata, Chennai or Hapur," Hirabhai says, while also telling that the bones meet their fate in the crushing mills in Central Gujarat.

As per Manjula Pradeep, ED, Navsarjan, a grassroots Dalit organization, the dead cow processing business has an estimated annual turnover of Rs 1,200 crore.

While the Rohit community disposes of carcasses, Valmiki community, considered to be untouchable even by the Rohit community, takes care of carcasses of cats, dogs or smaller animals, the carcasses of which are not of any financial benefit.

"The caste lines are much stronger among Dalits than even in the dominant community even today," said an activist from the Rohit community. "See all these big industries are run by people of dominant castes and they are making crores of rupees in the business, but we who get the basics for them get to live with the beatings and pittance," he says.

"PM speaks about Swachh Bharat, just take a look around the places where Dalits have gone on strike. The stench will tell you how Swachch Bharat is when we don't do what we do," he smirks.

Facing threat from the cow protectors, the Rohit community has not been lifting dead animals since July 18, which has pushed the administration to edge.

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