The Plastic Cow

The Plastic Cow

In India, one of the most striking images is the cow wandering on the road. In cities, towns and villages numerous cows and bulls sit or wander peacefully, settling down to chew the cud. It gives the impression of a society living together peacefully with animals. The holy cow, the Mother of India is revered by all and, in most states, is not allowed to be slaughtered.

What is The Plastic Cow?

India has an open garbage system, which means open garbage bins on the roads overflowing with stinking waste.

In cities and towns, large numbers of cows on the roads eat from garbage bins, foraging for fruit and vegetable leftovers, anything edible and smelling like food.

Since plastic bags have invaded our lives, almost all garbage and food waste is disposed in plastic bags. Since the plastic bags are knotted at the mouth, cows, unable to undo the knot, eat food leftovers including the plastic. Slowly, over time, they build up a huge amount of plastic inside their stomachs. It gets entangled with different materials and it becomes hard like cement inside their rumens, which is the first belly of the cow.

These cattle, owned or stray, often obstruct traffic and cause accidents. The municipality removes the animals from the road to be sent to godowns, goshalas (shelters designed for cows), temples or they are simply dumped at the garbage landfills on the outskirts of the city. From there they “disappear” into trucks for transport to slaughter.

Background

There are many small “urban” dairy farms in cities and big towns. Dairy owners send their animals out on the road to forage for food as there is no green grass and little or no space to keep the animals at home. Still the owner milks his cows. These cows share the roads with abandoned calves, young and old bulls, old and dry cows. They scavenge between the garbage bins, the vegetable markets and hotels and finally end up on the municipality garbage landfills outside the town.

The Holy Cow reduced to a dying scavenger

There have been anti-plastic campaigns in India. At present there is a ban on plastic bags up to 40 microns in many states. But no one has focused on the hazardous effects of plastic on the animals and their right to live a life free of plastics. It is the basic right of the cow to live and graze on natural food and not have to eat garbage tied up in plastic bags. This is an acute form of cruelty. The noble cow has become a scavenger.

‘The Plastic Cow’ is a 34-minute documentary about animal rights. The film looks at the impact of our almost complete dependence on plastic bags, which we use and discard carelessly every day, often to dispose our garbage and kitchen waste. The film is also a comment on the religious hypocrisy of the cult of the holy cow.

Plastic Cow campaign Noida (Delhi – NCR)

Eternal Energy, a non profit organisation is actively involved in spreading the cause for the plastic cow. Till date, many campaigns including school programs, interaction with authorities/government officials have been going on in full swing. But no action by the government or any active interest from the people have been achieved. There is total apathy and complete lack of awareness or willingness to help. Every now and then other volunteers and NGOs join in for public outreach programs. There was also a big seminar where the entire issue was debated by experts and public authorities, big promises were made, but nothing came forward.

Eternal Energy, www.eternalenergy.in or 9891546445 is seeking assistance from all possible cross sections of society to join hands to take the cause forward.

The above text is extracted from Karuna Society for Animals & Nature.www.karunasociety.org. Karuna Society is also actively getting a website dedicatedly made for the plastic cow.