Vice Chancellors of two major universities in the State are not aware of a University Grants Commission (UGC) circular that sought to publicise an examination in ‘indigenous cow science’ being held by the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog, which is attached to the Union Ministry of Animal Husbandry, on February 25.
Gopinath Ravindran and M.K. Jayaraj, VCs of Kannur University and Calicut University respectively, told The Hindu on Wednesday that the circular had not reached them. Mr. Jayaraj, though, said that he had seen newspaper reports on the issue.
The examination
The examination is to disseminate information on the “economic, scientific, environmental, health, agricultural, and spiritual relevance of the indigenous cow,” said the circular dated February 12.
The all-India examination is open to all school and college students and other citizens. UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain had urged the VCs to give “wide publicity to this initiative and encourage students to enroll/register themselves for the examination”.
However, M.R. Saseendranath, Vice Chancellor, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, said that he had forwarded the letter to the Director (Academic and Research) of the university. “There will be no compulsion. Those who are interested can participate. We will anyway circulate the message,” he added.
The initial study material for the examination, when it was announced last month, included claims that cow dung protects against nuclear radiation. It had said that there was a link between cow slaughter and earthquakes and that Jersey cows are lazy and thus give poor quality of milk while the indigenous ones give yellow milk with traces of gold.
