Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE FAMOUS AND "HOLY COWS" OF
INDIA
“Holy Cow”
... No, Chicago residents, Harry Caray did
not
coin that phrase. A first trip
to India always astounds visitors.
Why
are all those cows sitting placidly in the middle of
traffic?
Why
do people let them casually walk into their houses?
Why
are they everywhere
you are?
Why
aren't these bony-looking bovines on farms where they belong?
What the
heck is going on?
Animal life is a central theme in Hindu life and in India - all animals are sacred. Even Jain
nuns carried little mops to dust off the ground before siting to keep from crushing an insect!
Some trace the cow's sacred status back to Lord Krishna, one of Vishnu's eight incarn-
ations. He is said to have appeared 5,000 years ago as a cowherd, and often described as
bala-gopala
, "The child who protects the cows." Another reason the cow is sacred to Hindus
is the belief they can only reach heaven by crossing a mythological river holding the tail of
a cow. Other scriptures identify the cow as the "mother" of all civilization, its milk nurturing
the population. However, It's a different situation when the cows no longer produce milk.
They are then abandoned on the road because it is
badluckifacowdiesonyourproperty
.
The cows that you see along the roads are usually the abandoned ones who create dan-
gerous and massive traffic jams. It is astonishing that in 20+ years of travel through India,
we've
never
seen any cow/motorized vehicle accidents. A citizen can even be sent to jail for
killing or injuring a cow. Delhi is now experimenting with personnel who catch, and ship,
the wayward cows outside the city limits to special reserves. Have you heard it all, now?
Instead of wild game reserves, wild cow reserves?
When a cow dies a natural (or unnatural) death, it is skinned and then
buried
. They used
to leave cows for the vultures but vultures are in scant supply because DDT killed them.
Cows ate plants sprayed with DDT. DDT didn't harm the cows. When Cows died, vultures
feasted on cows and the DDT in cow's bodies killed off the vultures. End of story...
There are
cow feeding platforms
in each of Ahmedabad's
pols
. (
Pols
are small districts
usually occupied by people with the same religion or caste.) It is considered good luck to
give one a snack, a bit of bread, fruit before breakfast, and many families give the cow the
first
roti
of the day. One enterprising farmer carried this even one step further in Ahmedabad.
He brings his own cows, along with feed, to different neighborhoods. People pay to
buy
his
feed and
feed his cows
. A win-win situation for this entrepreneur.
To answer the question, "
Why
are all those cows sitting in the middle of traffic" - According
to authorities, the exhaust, noise, etc., not only keeps flies off the cows but as an added bo-
nus, the
exhaust fumes get them high
. "Holy Cow!...I'm out of here...
