The defence ministry ordered shutdown of 39 military farms across India, which houses elite cross-bred cows that produce the highest milk yields. The ministry on 20 July cited a decision by the cabinet committee on security. It asked the army to “take steps” to close the military farms that house milch cattle and give milk and dairy products to the armed forces within three months.
Representatives of a union think the order may have been caused by a conviction that considering the enlargement of the private milk and dairy industry in the nation, there may be no requirement for military farms. They also think that corruption cases that have infrequently surfaced in military farms may have contributed to the closing decision.
A mark of the British-rule era, the military farms began operations in Allahabad in 1889. These are now placed in Ambala (Haryana), Bengdubi (north Bengal), Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Pimpri (Maharashtra), Panagarh (Bengal) and Ranchi among other cantonments.
As per federation representatives, it is ironic that the shutdown decision has come from the Narendra Modi government which is already fighting allegations of encouraging cow vigilantism. The decision puts a question mark on the future of India’s most superior cows, considered through milk yields.
