New Delhi
(CNN) -- When 33-year-old Ashoo Mongia visits the supermarket it's rarely for
stocking up his fridge for the week. As head of a cow protection enforcement
team, he regularly scours Delhi
grocery stores and outdoor markets for food products containing cow beef.
For the last 15 years, Mongia and his team of 120
Delhi-based volunteers have thrown themselves in a battle that pits India's
billon-dollar meat industry and growing underground beef trade against Hindu
traditionalists keen on preserving the holy status of cows.
"The cow is our mother, it's our duty to protect
her," said Mongia, who monitors and raids hundreds of stores, butcher
shops and slaughterhouses suspected of carrying, selling or slaughtering
India's blessed bovines. "We do this because we believe in what the cow
represents in our country, our culture and in the Hindu religion."
This year, India
will displace the United States
as the world's third largest beef exporter, behind Brazil
and Australia.
In just the first half of 2012, India
exported $1.24 billion worth of meat, and a 30 percent growth in revenue from
2010 exports is projected by the end of the year, according to a U.S. Beef
Export Federation study.
While the bulk of Indian exports is buffalo meat bound for Middle East and Southeast Asian markets, the growing
middle class in Arab countries has sparked a new craving for cow beef. The rise
in demand could make India
the world's king beef exporter by 2013, according to USDA estimates.
But as India
continues its struggle for economic and political dominance in South Asia,
there is concern that Hindu-mandated bans on beef could hamper the industry's
future growth, particularly in states like Kerala and West
Bengal where the practice is legal.
Relied on by generations of Indians for tilling fields,
dairy products and dung fuel, the cow is regarded by Hindus as gau mata, or
maternal figure, and has had a long-standing central role in India's
religious rituals. Those religious attitudes, however, are viewed by some
Indian business leaders as a major hindrance to commerce.
India
cuts rates in growth bid
"Cow beef could be a very lucrative business in India,"
said Dr. S.K. Ranjhan, the director of Hind Agro Industries Limited, who
believes that religious attitudes may stand to change once the extent of
business opportunities are realized. "I think five-to-10 years from now,
people won't be so scandalized by the sale of cow beef."
U.S.
missing out on India's
boom?
The majority of India's 24 states outlaw the
slaughter of cows except under extenuating circumstances: to stifle contagious
diseases, prevent pain and suffering, medical research, etc. And several states
-- including Delhi
and Rajasthan, among others -- ban the sale and slaughter of cows altogether.
"When you consider just how much money is made from
underground cow smuggling, it becomes clear that not only is there a huge
amount at stake, but a huge demand that butchers and slaughterhouses are
catering to," said Dr. Zarin Ahmad, a fellow at the Centre de Sciences
Humaines in New Delhi, who has extensively studied the work and trade among
India's butcher communities.
Working with Mongia's enforcement team is Parmanand Mittal,
a cow-advocacy lawyer who works from a home-office on the outskirts of Delhi. Throughout the
day, Mittal fields a stream of phone calls -- tipsters who have caught wind of
illegal slaughterhouses and owners of gau shalas, or cow sanctuaries, concerned
with unexpected expenses associated with new rescues.
In Mittal's office hangs a painting of Lord Krishna — one of
the most revered divinities in Hinduism— with his arm resting affectionately on
a white calf. While Mongia's crew breaks up the slaughterhouses, Mittal builds
a legal case for prosecution. His backlog of casework extensive, Mittal says.
While there might be money to be made from adding cow beef
to current exports, India
would incur costs elsewhere, Mittal says.
"Cows have long been the source of fuel, manure and
fertilizer, among other things. These animals are revered because they've
played a large role in the welfare and livelihood of all Indians," Mittal
said. "Take away the cow and the repercussions will be huge."
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/18/business/beef-trade-india/index.html