Cows are very important to Hindus because they are considered to be like mothers. Mothers give their babies milk, which is one of the most important things for growing up and staying healthy. From milk you can make lots of other foods like cheese, yogurt, cream and butter.
In Hinduism, the cow is considered a sacred animal and symbolizes wealth, strength, and motherly love. It is believed to be the earthly representative of the divine and nourishing Mother Goddess, who represents fertility and bountifulness. Their milk is believed to have a purifying effect on human bodies.
Why is this happening? The answer has to do with religion. Cows are revered as sacred in Hinduism, practiced by nearly 80 percent of India's 1.3 billion people. Many states already prohibit cow slaughter.
Cows may be revered but remain ill-treated in India. Cows possess a special human-animal bond in India because of their various important roles in farming, culture and religion.
Cattle slaughter in India, especially cow slaughter, is controversial because of cattle's status as endeared and respected living beings to adherents of Dharmic religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism; while being an acceptable source of meat for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Even so, penalties for cow slaughter, beef eating, or even possession of the meat, range from up to life imprisonment in Gujarat -- to jail time or heavy penalties in other states.
Sometimes the baby cows are killed for their flesh shortly after they are born – otherwise, they are used for their milk or killed for meat or leather when they are older. When their milk production wanes after a few years, the mother cows are killed, and their flesh and skin is sold.
Not all cow takes kindly to touch. But you can take your chances only under the supervision as you might mistake a bull for a cow. Elephants you will see mostly with a Mahavat ( the rider/caretaker) you can ask him whether you can touch. Usually, they are well accustomed to human beings.
In cities old cows who are beyond their milk producing years are left to roam and fend for themselves. They die either a natural death or die in an accident. City municipality disposes of such cases - mostly burying them.
Once the calf is born, within minutes he is separated from the mother tied by the neck and prevented from feeding from the mother. Male calves are either sold for slaughter or starved to death as they do not produce any milk. While female calves replace the older ailing females who are no longer fertile."
The normal lifespan of a cow/bull is about 15 years. But for a farmer, his cow is unproductive once it is eight or nine years old and would have calved five-six times. By then, its milk yield would have dropped to levels where maintenance becomes uneconomical.
There are more than 5 million stray cattle roaming the streets of India. The cow is a holy animal in the Hindu religion, but stray cattle — mostly abandoned males — have been causing chaos in India. There are frequent reports of cattle attacking people, causing car accidents, and spreading disease.
The bindi is said to help control the latent energy released through the ajna chakra during meditation. Also called the third eye, the ajna chakra sees the inner world just as physical eyes see the external world; the bindi helps its wearer access her inner wisdom and interpret matters in an unbiased, rational manner.
All of India's most widely practiced religions have dietary laws and traditions. For example, Hindu texts often praise vegetarianism, and Hindus may also avoid eating beef because cows are traditionally viewed as sacred. Muslim teachings, meanwhile, prohibit pork.
The cow is a revered animal in throughout much of India. It represents Mother Earth — a source of goodness, who nourishes all creatures with its milk. And dairy production in India is indeed big business.
There is no state ban on beef in West Bengal, Kerala, and North-Eastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim. In most states, cow slaughtering is declared illegal; for example, in Tamil Nadu, cow slaughtering is banned by up to 3 years in jail and a Rs.
Kamadhenu, the miraculous "cow of plenty" and the "mother of cows" in certain versions of the Hindu mythology, is believed to represent the generic sacred cow, regarded as the source of all prosperity. In the 19th century, a form of Kamadhenu was depicted in poster-art that depicted all major gods and goddesses in it.
Most rennet has historically come from calves slaughtered while still nursing. This is because once they begin eating grass or feed, they lose the ability to produce rennet, a chemical that helps them digest their mother's milk. This is part of managing herds.
Cows' natural diet consists mainly of grasses, legumes, alfalfa, clover, and hay. They are grazing animals, after all. Many cows also enjoy fruits as delicious snacks. In fact, the average cow eats 2% of their body weight a day, which averages out to 24-26 pounds of food each day.
About 900,000 cows are slaughtered every day. If every cow was 2 meters long, and they all walked right behind each other, this line of cows would stretch for 1800 kilometers. This represents the number of cows slaughtered every day. For chickens, the daily count is extremely large – 202 million chickens every day.
Stray cattle also cause car crashes. Between 2018 and 2022, in the Indian state of Haryana, more than 900 deaths were caused by cattle on roads. Stray cattle can carry diseases. Farmers have been known to release diseased cattle since they can't cull them, which can lead to outbreaks.
The first reason, cows are animals that are very meritorious in human life. Cows help cultivate agricultural land, produce milk that can meet community nutrition. The second reason, and precisely this is the most important, cows for Hindus are believed to be sacred animals.
