WORK BEFORE PINJRAPOLES

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

 

WORK BEFORE PINJRAPOLES

 

 

 Sjt. Y. M. Parnerkar, whose services have been engaged on behalf of the All-India Cow-protection Association, has sent me notes of his impressions gathered from his visit to Kathiawar where he went in search of good cows. In the hope that his plea for the expansion of pinjrapoles into model dairies and cattle-breeding farms on a moderate scale and under skilled management will not fall upon deaf ears, I condense them below. One thing that strikes most a lover of cattle when he visits Kathiawar, the home of the well-known Gir animals, is the enormous number of charitable institutions, run as retiring places for disabled cattle, chiefly cows.

They are known as pinjrapoles. When they were first started there was not the deep poverty that faces us today. It was then a matter of little importance, whether they were economically managed or not. But today the condition is altered. No such institution can now hope for long to stand well, unless it is put on a sound financial basis. The longevity of pinjrapoles could only be guaranteed if they became self-supporting. It was found that nearly eight lakhs of rupees per year were spent as recurring expenses only in Kathiawar on these institutions. Yet it is difficult, if not impossible, to secure even a few good cows in home for the best milk-producing cow in all India. This tract, once overflowing with milk, produces now hardly any pure and hygienic cow’s milk. The once warlike race of Kathis is now deteriorating for want of proper nourishment, notwithstanding plentiful grazing facilities for cattle-breeding. Bullocks for agricultural labour are imported by the cultivators from outside. The buffalo is overpowering the cow in the production of milk and ghee, and so driving her off the stage.

Time has come for the best brains of the country to take up this very important problem. There can be no two opinions on the point that the duty of the gosevak does not end with merely saving the cow from the butcher’s knife, but he has to stop the deterioration and try to raise the standard of milk production. It could be said that the surest way of saving the cow from going to the slaughter-house is to make it so expensive that the butcher cannot afford to purchase it. This could only be done, when the cow finds a good place among the paying heads in a dairyman’s or a cattle breeder’s ledger. The productive power of an average Indian cow has gone down so low that it is difficult for a business man to take up the work. The problem has therefore to be handled on a religious or national basis.

The work can be accomplished by the existing pinjrapoles. They have capital, buildings, and above all, public sympathy. What is needed is good management and enterprise. When a pinjrapole maintains about 100 or 200 retired cattle, it can add a few good cows that will support themselves and leave a margin for the other heads. If the cows are well kept, regularly bred to good bulls, and the calves well cared for, during a short period these should become places where the dairyman can purchase his foundation stock, the agriculturist may get his draft cattle, the fancy cattle-keeper the use of a good bull, the needy man his sick animals well treated, the ignorant cow-owner guidance in the best way of maintaining his live-stock, and what is more important, all from the child in the cradle to the old man on the deathbed may get pure milk and its nourishing products at moderate rate.