Kerala 

West Bengal  

25.27

26.41

Gujarat’s Gir and Kankrej species of cattle which have a high milk yield are in demand in Brazil. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 requires prior permission for export of Indian genetic material which is usually complied with because “every 10 to 15 years the Brazilian cattle need infusion of fresh blood to retain vigour”. However, in 2011 the Andhra Pradesh Biodiversity Board launched an investigation into a case where a cattle breeder sold without permission an Ongole bull to a middleman for Brazil. These bulls are said to be resistant to mad cow diseases. In fact, healthy bulls sell for crores in Brazil.

In 2017 there was an article about a 9 year old “super” buffalo from Kurukshetra (Haryana) that was worth Rs 9 crore because he annually earned 50 lakh by providing semen for artificial insemination.

Females are crowned beauty queens at these “Murrah on Ramp” shows, being judged for their shiny black (oiled and shampooed) skin and udder placement. Animals are pulled and tugged at and forced to walk up and down a ramp (slope 80x8 feet) one after another. The highest recorded milk yield by a Murrah is 31 litres, although on an average the buffalo gives 8-12 litres (maximum 15 litres) milk daily. In 2013 a female Murrah was sold by a Haryana farmer for Rs 25 lakhs to a farmer from Hyderabad and he held a grand farewell celebration inviting 2,000 guests from across the state.

Gimmicks galore… one being at a workshop for media professionals organised by the HEAL Foundation at New Delhi in July 2012 when it was stated that mothers were no longer confident about the quality of milk being given to their children. So, the solution arrived at was to preserve milk’s nutritional value it should be marketed in tetra-paks instead of plastic pouches! (Tetra-paks are made of paperboard coated mostly with plastic/polyethylene, if not, also aluminium – a metal that has a long history of being considered toxic.)

Chitale Dairy (Maharashtra) utilises radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to control and monitor feeding, etc. all in order to help improve milk yield. Up to 40 persons were required to take care of about 10,000 cattle, but the use of technology has reduced the number to 5 persons. Selective mating of cows is carried out at Chitale Dairy using a genetic mating system, whereas Amul uses a fertility improvement programme. The aim is to increase yield, balance costs and quality – modernisation is actually exploitation of milch animals.

A number of boutique dairies have sprung up across India. They supply “organic, unadulterated and farm-fresh” milk which they claim is possible because they keep their cows happy by not tying them up, giving them comforts and playing music to them before and during milking. Although the milk is sold at about double the cost of other milk till the beginning of 2014 none of the organic dairy entrepreneurs had broken even.

Following a World Health organization report warning later in the year the Drug Controller General of India and the Ministry of Agriculture directed all state governments to stop the use of antibiotics and hormones in cattle, poultry and other animal feed. They also called for strict implementation of the 2012 law which mandated a gap (7 days for milch cattle) between the time an animal is given a drug and extraction of a food product from the animal. If it is implemented production cost will go up… so it is very likely that milk will continue to have serious consequences on humans because of residue of antibiotics and hormones given to cows and buffaloes.

The ultimate cruelty in the dairy industry now set to be perpetrated in a big way in India too, is to feed calves with milk replacer and take away the milk from cows and she-buffaloes for human consumption. Common ingredients in commercial milk replacers include a combination of ingredients such as whey, protein concentrate (from whey, soy, wheat, potato, whereas the most recent abroad consists of red blood cell, plasma and fish proteins), animal and vegetable fat, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Ingredients such as skim milk, butter milk and whole milk are not usually included in the formulation due to their cost and if they are used they are less than 1%. A programme launched under the Maharashtra State Animal Husbandry and Dairy Commission Committee in October 2005 by the Kolhapur Zilla Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh Ltd (known for its Gokul brand milk) for enhancing milk productivity promotes its patented milk replacer and calf starter for calves thereby reducing their rearing expenditure by a third. The milk replacer that contains protein 25% & fat 7% reduces the first three months feeding expenses of the calf. The calf starter contains protein 23% & fat 4% and stimulates the ruminal activity in calves. (Mothers’ milk not allowed to be drunk by calf is sold to humans.)

Sadder still, is this true story: a she buffalo, separated from her calf, became hysterical and throughout the night continuously banged her head against the tree truck to which she was tied with a short chain. When released the next morning, she ran towards her calf, slipped and died. The owner mourned the loss of a “cash buffalo” – not the loss of a life – and even called the animal mad.

Then in 2013, the Maharashtra Department of Animal Husbandry embarked on another project involving selective breeding of cows and buffaloes with the aim of strengthening the indigenous breed of cattle and producing a new generation of animals with better resilience and increased milk producing capacity in the next 5-6 years. Nothing new: imported semen would be used for cross-bred cows, whereas specially selected semen from robust bulls of the state would be used to impregnating indigenous breeds. The only difference being that the government in its own interest would buy the male calves thus born for Rs 25,000/- to raise them at government bull farms that generate high quality semen.

Three years earlier in 2010, on the recommendation of the Punjab State Farmers Commission a project for “Improving milk productivity of milch animals, especially buffaloes, by providing Artificial Insemination service at the doorstep of the farmers through Integrated Buffalo Development Centres” had been launched with funds from the RKVY, implemented by Milkfed Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd and with the technical support provided by the Animal Husbandry Department.

India’s dairy industry exceedingly feels its future lies with bull semen. So in 2015, part of the National Dairy Plan included importing Holstein Friesian bulls for breeding and supporting veterinary workers to go round with canisters containing tubes of frozen bull semen and artificially inseminate as many as 30 animals a day in UP.

By the end of 2015, the National Dairy Plan Phase I with the objective of increasing milk production was in its fourth year and would end in 2019, but was gearing up to implement Phase II to focus on strengthening the milk processing capacity of co-operatives requiring around Rs 7,000 to 8,000 crore.

Despite India being the world’s 9th largest dairy product market, in 2016 because of a ban or restrictions on cow slaughter, global dairy players were not willing to enter India although the Government of India had allowed 100% FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in animal husbandry. (This includes pisciculture, aquaculture, apiculture and even breeding dogs.) This further proves that killing is very much a part of the dairy industry worldwide – unwanted male calves and uneconomical non-lactating cows are disposed off.

Oxytocin Hormone

Obtained from oxen or prepared synthetically, 1953 onwards, oxytocin began to be widely administered in obstetric practice for induction of labour, the control of bleeding following delivery, and the stimulation of milk letdown reflex.

Along the way people got the bright idea of indiscriminately using oxytocin (OT) injections on milch animals – not only during delivery of a calf, but daily. Five minutes before milking 5 ml of OT is injected twice a day so that milk flows fast out of the udder.

The side effects on the poor animals being given this injection day in and day out are tremendous. The reproductive systems of the cows and she-buffaloes get irreversibly damaged and the animals are abandoned in a couple of years.

Ever since BWC got to know that cows and she-buffaloes were being regularly subjected to painful contractions of their uteruses every day, we have been speaking against its use, and wrote to the government too.

In June 2013 the Mid Day publication came out with their remarkable evidence-clinching investigation carried out over a period of two months, detailing how in Mumbai’s tabelas, female buffaloes were illegally being administered oxytocin injections in their necks twice a day. Oxytocin is the generic name, whereas Pitocin and Syntocinon are brand names of the hormone drug that causes the uterus to contract.

The ban on the sale of this drug without a prescription is unfortunately not implemented. It is sold in plastic bottles without labels and called doodh ka dawa. A bottle of 20 doses of 5 ml each is as cheap as Rs 30/-.

Samples of milk collected from dairies that used the doodh ka dawa injections, tested positive by showing up in the milk. Meanwhile, many doctors of Mumbai say there is an increase in hormone imbalance complaints among children and that they have been treating girls for premature puberty and boys with breast enlargement problems. This, no doubt, is due to them consuming hormone-laden milk.

A week later, when the Food and Drugs Administration team raided the tabelas where Mid-Day had exposed the use of Oxytocin, they found no evidence of it. The FDA say they’ve never found Oxytocin in milk but if found guilty, the owners will be punished under the Food Safety and Standards Act; and that they will search for the supplier as part of their investigation into the matter!

The President of the Indian Medical Association’s Pune Chapter has stated that “Oxytocin hormone used for the purpose of increasing milk yield in cattle can have side-effects on cattle as well as on humans. It can cause ovarian diseases in women and could damage seminal vesicles in men, which may lead to impotency”.

In 2014 with the aim of curbing misuse of oxytocin to boost milk production and plump up the size of vegetables and fruits, the Ministry of Health prohibited its retail sale. Formulations meant for veterinary use can be sold to veterinary hospitals only. Both the Food & Drug Adulteration and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Acts forbid its rampant use. Although the government has labelled it as a schedule H-drug requiring a prescription, it is some how sold to and used by dairies to increase the flow of milk. They say it does not actually increase the milk output, but merely makes it flow out faster.

Nearly 70 companies produce oxytocin, of which only a fraction (likely to be 5%) is sold legally. The Food & Drug Administration say the origin of oxytocin trafficking is Bihar. In October 2010 there were huge seizures of oxytocin consisting of 72,000 ampoules in Pune, 250 bottles in Daund, and 8,400 ampoules in Wagholi. The latest raids conducted April 2015 by the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation of the Health Ministry resulted in large quantities of oxytocin injections being seized in Delhi. Injecting cows and she-buffaloes with oxytocin is unfortunately the norm in dairies.

Good reasons to immediately give up milk and milk products. May be women need to stop and think about how they would feel if twice a day their bodies were injected to go into labour-mode and have contractions, and secrete milk. Unless and until we imagine ourselves in the position of the animal victim, we will not be able to appreciate what it feels like to have one’s body be considered a commodity for the beneficial use of another species.

Incidentally, the National Guidelines on Human Milk Banking (under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) do not state that animal milk is the second best option when a newborn is unable to receive his or her mother’s milk, but donated human milk is the second best option. India has around 125 milk banks of which 25 are in Maharashtra. Unfortunately human milk which is donated and meant to be given free is charged for and is also siphoned off by fitness and beauty industries and is being commercialised as a life-saving Ayurvedic drug (since it contains stem cells) as well. Therefore in 2024 the Human Milk Bank Association of India requested the Government to regulate the banks and end illegalities so the FSSAI notified FDA Maharashtra to look into the issue and take action against violators.

Calves when born are separated from their mothers because it is unprofitable to let them feed on their mothers’ milk – they may be allowed to suckle for only a short duration, primarily to stimulate milk secretion from the cow, otherwise they may be fed a little colostrums in a bucket. As soon as the flow of milk starts, the calf is taken away and tied separately.

Milk continues to be produced in this way as the consumers (not the calves) continue to enjoy milk and milk products. On an average 10 litres of milk is taken away from a cow or buffalo daily. So for obvious reasons female calves are raised (on minimum mother’s milk) to repeat the process lasting for as long as they produce milk which is a maximum of 12 to 14 years.

Economically unviable, unwanted male calves are not at all cared for and generally 80% die due to deliberate malnutrition and hunger, whereas some are immediately got rid of by being abandoned but they too die of starvation or are illegally slaughtered, usually for their leather. Believe it or not, some butchers unasked for the favour, steal the newly born male calves at night.

Keeping male calves adds to the cost of dairy operations – with nil monetary returns. In 2005 animal activists saw unwanted male calves stuffed in gunny bags being thrown out of a moving train at Mahim Creek, Mumbai. The carcasses had been skinned for leather.

Leopards frequently straying and attacking humans in the woods near the Aarey Milk Colony (Mumbai) gives rise to the suspicion that male calves are surreptitiously abandoned there.

These male calves can not when they are older plough land or pull carts like tough desi bulls. They are foreign, such as the Jersey and Holstein-Friesian breeds, and only suitable for producing large quantities of milk.

Religious reverence for calves in India does not allow males to be fattened for veal – calf meat is illegal any way. Abroad, unwanted and discarded male calves are called “bobby calves” and are raised and killed for veal. Bred annually so their mothers generate milk, they are destined for sale or slaughter when less than 30 days old and under 80 kgs in weight.

Milk production-cum-consumption and male infanticide are inseparable.

All mammals at the time of parturition secrete colostrums from their nipples. It is a thin yellowish milky fluid rich in antibodies and consists largely of serum and white blood cells. It precedes the production of true milk and is just sufficient for and meant exclusively for the just delivered baby. High in energy, protein, vitamins (especially A D E and B12), minerals and most importantly containing high levels of imunoglobulins, by suckling the colostrums, passive immunity is transferred from the mother to the newborn thus enabling it to fight off infections during its life time.

Cows and calves (especially female ones) are generally considered sacred in thought, but not always in deed by Hindus. Why else would male dairy calves be abandoned by virtue of being uneconomic? Many who own milch cows in cities can’t protect them as they do not have the means or place, so they are let loose to forage on the streets day and night, grazing on grassy medians and finding some thing to eat in the garbage. “Lifting” them off the streets or farms at night was by 2013 fast becoming a common criminal activity, more so in places like Meerut and Muzaffanagar where farmers remain awake to guard their cattle from theft. The animals are transported to illegal slaughterhouses, or more likely, transported via Bihar into West Bengal up to the Indo-Bangladesh border, and smuggled out live to be killed for meat and leather. The scrawny cows are thus systematically loosing their sacred status.

People are increasingly wondering and complaining on social network sites as to why when lime/nimbu is added to boiling milk with the intention of making it curdle, it does not turn into cottage cheese/paneer. It surprises them that this occurs with well known branded packets of milk and that it indicates that most of the milk sold is indeed adulterated.

In 2012 tests by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) showed widespread milk adulteration in India. Nearly 70% of the 1791 samples taken from urban and rural areas across the country were contaminated or otherwise diluted. (Dilution with uncontaminated water makes milk substandard, but not unsafe. There exists a superstition among milkmen is that if pure milk is sold, their cows will run dry.) Tests revealed adulteration was with contaminated water, skimmed milk powder, glucose, hydrogen peroxide, urea and detergent, thus posing health risks. The report had also found reconstituted milk adulterated – reconstituted milk is obtained upon adding water to whole milk powder, or is prepared using an emulsifying apparatus with skimmed milk powder, butter-fat and water.

The FSSAI report of 2013 was as bad because 68.4% of milk samples collected from rural and urban areas of all states failed food safety and standards and 88% taken from Uttar Pradesh were adulterated.

The Delhi University’s Journal of Undergraduate Research and Innovation February 2015 issue published that tests conducted on 30 milk samples (open and branded) from Delhi/NCR showed adulteration and did not conform to standards set by the FSSAI. They all tested positive for maltose and cane sugar; and they contained neutralisers/stabilisers which are added to increase shelf life.

In 2008 milk originating from China, tested positive for melamine, a chemical used in fertilizer and plastic, causing at least six baby deaths among the three lakh persons affected, and resulting in several jail sentences, including some life sentences. The lesson was not learnt because in 2011, a company had to destroy milk tainted with afla-toxin, a carcinogenic mould found in corn grown in humid climates. And again in 2012, China’s top selling dairy had to recall six months’ worth of one brand of their infant formula after government tests found it was tainted with mercury, a heavy metal that can cause neural damage if ingested. Since China did not provide any data addressing safety concerns, the import ban on Chinese milk products imposed by the Government of India in 2008 has been extended every year and remains effective till June 2015.

Few incidents of food-poisoning due to milk consumption come out into the open like the milk laced with pesticides and insecticides which caused the death of 5 tribal students of the State Welfare Department-run boarding school of Ranchi in November 2008 or when 61 children got ill after drinking insect-infested Government milk at Batakwada village near Vadodara. According to a study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research 570 times the permitted limit of pesticides are found in the average milk available.

Food poisoning from milk can also be as a result of the Brucella virus, which leads to arthritis, fever and infertility in humans. And, the commonly known Salmonella poisoning can be from milk too.

In August 2016, the Supreme Court said adulteration of milk could adversely affect the growth of future generations. It pointed to UP, Bengal and Odisha which had already amended their state laws making the offence punishable by life terms. The bench referred to a 2011 FSSAI report which said that over 68% of milk sold in the market was found adulterated. All samples in Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Mizoram, Jharkhand and Daman & Diu were adulterated. Expressing concern over the alarming level of milk adulteration in the country the SC favoured stringent punishment of life imprisonment for the offence which was up to 6 months in jail or a fine only.

Researchers say hormones (not fat) found in dairy products consumed by teenagers are responsible for acne vulgaris or pimples. It has also been observed that particular communities like the Canadian Inuits who shifted to a westernised diet of sweet colas, beef, dairy produce and processed foods, began suffering especially from acne, and also auto-immune disturbances, high insulin levels and cardio-vascular disease.

Similarly, tribals of Bagmara village (south of Agartala) in Tripura, hold on to their age-old custom that forbids consumption of cow milk, though nearly each household has at least one milch cow. They consider the cow as god so no milking. They also feel that depriving the calf of its mother’s milk is a sin, and that the gods will not exonerate the sinner.