Figures Reveal India Has More Registered Slaughterhouses than Milk Units
INDIA - The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries has revealed that India has more slaughterhouses than milk processing factories and liquid milk plants combined.
26 January 2016
2 minute read
Though the majority of the Indians follows vegetarianism, there are 1,623 registered slaughterhouses compared to 213 registered milk processing factories and 793 liquid milk plants, reports Siasat.
Interestingly, Maharashtra, which was put on boil for a meat ban, has a maximum number of slaughterhouses (316) followed by Uttar Pradesh (285), Tamil Nadu (130), Kerala (55), West Bengal (11), Sikkim (4) and Mizoram (2) where cows can be slaughtered legally.
“It is ironic that we have more meat units than milk units. It seems govt is more interested in issuing licences to more slaughterhouses than milk production units,” said Ramesh Verma, who filed the RTI.
“The number revealed by the department is not even half of the actual number of slaughterhouses being run in the country. There are thousands of illegal and unregistered slaughterhouses and the meat which most of the people consume is sold through these units,” said Dr Avinash Srivastava, veterinary expert and technical head, Wellcon Animal Health.
Indian meat industry involves trading animals and slaughtering animals like cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs, bullocks and poultry.
It is to be noted that, recently country witnessed a heightened political backlash over cow slaughter due to the religious importance of the animal. The BJP also tried to make cow slaughter an emotive issue to appeal to Hindu sentiments during the Bihar elections.
However Kerala, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are the states where there is no restriction on cow slaughter.
