First came demonetisation. Then, as banknotes slowly returned to circulation, a crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in the state wrecked the local market for cattle.
In Ilyas Khan’s eyes shine the pride of a grand past that give way to the clouds of an uncertain future. Two decades ago, the Thursday cattle market he runs in western Uttar Pradesh’s Banat saw traders troop in from faraway Delhi and Bihar. Today, the facility is on its last legs, he says, and struggles to even attract people from nearby Shamli.
First, demonetisation wiped out cash from the farmers and traders hands. Then, as banknotes slowly returned to circulation, a crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in the state wrecked the local market for cattle. Now, a central government notification on cattle markets – bazarbandi in local parlance – threatens to lurch the Banat facility towards closure.
“The number of cattle we sell is down to 10%. Earlier the place would buzz from 7am to 5pm. Now all trade is over in two hours,” says Ilyas, sitting inside a makeshift tent on one corner of a massive field. “Tabaahi ho gayi hai.”
The dead market stirs alive every now and then by the roar and gusts of dust kicked up by an occasional truck. A handful of buffaloes amble about in the middle – a sign of slowing local demand that was the mainstay of Banat. Opposite the market, the lone legal slaughterhouse in the district is shuttered.
“Only factories are running. Local butchers are finished. People are scared of police, Yogi (chief minister Adityanath) and his yuva vahini,” says Nyasuddin, one of the oldest traders in the market. He says trade has fallen from Rs 1.5 lakh to just Rs 40,000 a day, and the number of labourers employed from 80 to 10.
The sale of cows has stopped and buffaloes and bulls sell for between Rs 15,000 and Rs 75,000, depending on strength and age. But overhead costs are many – traders privately say police are cashing in on the atmosphere of fear amnd ask for bribes to let trucks pass. A case of cow slaughter in nearby Garhi Pukhta has spooked locals further. “Imagine if local vegetables are banned and are sold only in the city,” Ilyas complains.
District animal husbandry department chief Bhupendra Singh blames the slowing trade on a refusal to adhere to rules – each market has two doctors who ensure trades can only carry a certain number of animals in a truck. But privately, district officials concur that the cattle market business is finished.
Such tales of distress abound on the other side of the chain. In Uttarakhand’s Rajaji National Park, for example, officials are battling a scourge of farmers leaving old cattle to be eaten by leopards because locals are scared the animals will die on their watch. Most states hand out harsh punishments for cattle slaughter but haven’t ramped up the capacity of shelters to take in old and infirm animals.
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