Farmers seek permission to graze their cattle in forest land

Coimbatore: A group of cattle farmers from villages in and around Thondamuthur on Monday approached the district collector seeking permission to graze their cows in forest land. They said the population of native cattle breeds, especially the Malai Kongu Maadu, had dropped drastically after farmers were banned from grazing their cattle in reserve forest zones.
They also demanded that the price at which Aavin buys A2 milk from farmers should be tripled, to encourage more farmers to breed and maintain native cow breeds.
Farmers led by the Kongu Patteeshwaran Ghoshala have requested the collector to make the forest department again issue “patti passes” to cattle farmers. “This is a pass that the forest department was issuing to allow us to graze our cattle in forest areas and lands. Around the year 2000-’01, there were nearly 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh Malai Kongu Maadu cows across villages in and around Thondamuthur, including Madhampatti, Karadimadai and Viraliyur,” T Shanmugam, a member of the Ghoshala, said. “However, in 2002, when the forest department withdrew our patti passes and banned ours and our cattle’s entry in forest areas, many farmers panicked and sold thousands of their native cows to slaughter houses. We have a few thousand cows of the native breed left,” he said.
The farmers said the government should incentivize rearing of native breeds of cattle. “While one way is to allow us to graze in forest areas, the other one is to make Aavin buy A2 milk from us farmers for at least Rs 50 to Rs 60 per litre. They currently buy it for Rs 20 per litre, which is the cost for A1 milk. They have only one category called milk,” Shanmugam said. “They should also ban construction on hill area conservation lands and foothills of mountains, because it eventually takes away greenery and open lands which can be used for grazing,” he added.
The cattle farmers said the ban on cattle has affected their environment in multiple ways. “Whenever our cattle used to graze in the forest fringes, wild animals never came out of the forest. We have never seen wild elephants, bears and leopards. Now, they have begun coming inside our villages. The grazing cow’s urine and dung was so beneficial to the soil that the forests were thicker, and they used to eat grass so well that fresh grass kept growing. Now we have less greenery and temperature is higher. We have also had to start using chemical pesticides, because we don’t have enough cow urine to make biopesticides,” the petition said.