368
At the same time, India for the period 2018/2019 exported “1.15 million tonnes” of
buffalo, an amount down by some 15% from the previous year because China had
banned imports from India fearing quality control issues in Indian abattoirs that
suggested potential “foot-and-mouth disease”.
23
Two billion three hundred million
pounds of exported buffalo meat from India does not, of course, include the likely
incalculable amounts of buffalo, cow, steer, chicken, and other meat consumed each
year within India. It is known that in 2018, 3.7 million metric tons of poultry were
eaten in India.
24
In 2019, Indians consumed 2.687 million metric tons of beef
and veal.
25
Writes Sena Desai Gopal of the world’s “second-largest beef exporter” (India),
“India’s beef industry says all its beef comes from buffaloes, a claim challenged by
right wing, religious, and animal rights groups”.
26
According to Gopal, “India has
115 million buffaloes, more than half the world’s population, and produces about
1.53 million tons of beef every year,” quoting Santosh Sarangi, the chairman of the
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)
of India.
27
British colonial administrators made their way into the Nilgiris in the early
1800s, seeking cool respite from the brutal summers down in Coimbatore, 86 kilometers to the South. Ooty (Ootacamund, or Udagamandalam) was likened to a
Swiss-like paradise, cool mists, much rain, and a gorgeous floristic province, teeming with wildlife and some “exotic” “tribes.” It was the perfect hill station, at over
6000 feet altitude. With the building of a steep, circuitous road to Ooty and nearby
Coonoor, completed in 1832, it became an ideal spot for British soldiers to indulge
Sep 26, 2015, Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/where-do-people-eat-the-mostmeat-2015–-9, Accessed April 13, 2020. From research by the “OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook
2015,” OECDiLibrary, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/oecd-fao-agriculturaloutlook-2015/meat_agr_outlook-2015-10-en
23 “India’s buffalo meat exports to plunge amid China clampdown on illegal imports,” by Rajendra
Jadhav, Reuters, January 31, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-meat-exports/indiasbuffalo-meat-exports-to-plunge-amid-china-clampdown-on-illegal-imports-idUSKCN1PQ3RZ,
Accessed April 13, 2020.
24 Statista, “Consumption volume of poultry meat in India from 2013–2019,” https://www.statista.
com/statistics/826711/india-poultry-meat-consumption/. Accessed April 13, 2020
25 Statista. “Consumption volume of beef and veal in India from 2015 to 2019 (in metric tons carcass weight equivalent),” https://www.statista.com/statistics/826722/india-beef-and-veal-consumption/. Accessed April 13, 2020.
26 op cit.,“Selling the Sacred Cow: India’s Contentious Beef Industry – In a country where cattle
are considered sacred, they’re also paradoxically becoming a lucrative export,” by Sena Desai
Gopal, February 12, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/selling-thesacred-cow-indias-contentious-beef-industry/385359/, Gopal’s data, in part, taken from: “Pink
revolution? Meat exports up in NDA regime,” HindustanTimes, by DK Singh and Timsy Jaipuria,
January 6, 2015, https://www.hindustantimes.com/business/pink-revolution-meat-exports-up-innda-regime/story-6GuGjvgHgPcnFyscGTqJ0O.html, in which the Narendra Modi policies are
elucidated with respect to the “subsiding slaughterhouses and promoting meat exports”.
27 ibid., S.D. Gopal.
41 The Conical Temple of Konawsh
At the same time, India for the period 2018/2019 exported “1.15 million tonnes” of
buffalo, an amount down by some 15% from the previous year because China had
banned imports from India fearing quality control issues in Indian abattoirs that
suggested potential “foot-and-mouth disease”.
23
Two billion three hundred million
pounds of exported buffalo meat from India does not, of course, include the likely
incalculable amounts of buffalo, cow, steer, chicken, and other meat consumed each
year within India. It is known that in 2018, 3.7 million metric tons of poultry were
eaten in India.
24
In 2019, Indians consumed 2.687 million metric tons of beef
and veal.
25
Writes Sena Desai Gopal of the world’s “second-largest beef exporter” (India),
“India’s beef industry says all its beef comes from buffaloes, a claim challenged by
right wing, religious, and animal rights groups”.
26
According to Gopal, “India has
115 million buffaloes, more than half the world’s population, and produces about
1.53 million tons of beef every year,” quoting Santosh Sarangi, the chairman of the
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)
of India.
27
British colonial administrators made their way into the Nilgiris in the early
1800s, seeking cool respite from the brutal summers down in Coimbatore, 86 kilometers to the South. Ooty (Ootacamund, or Udagamandalam) was likened to a
Swiss-like paradise, cool mists, much rain, and a gorgeous floristic province, teeming with wildlife and some “exotic” “tribes.” It was the perfect hill station, at over
6000 feet altitude. With the building of a steep, circuitous road to Ooty and nearby
Coonoor, completed in 1832, it became an ideal spot for British soldiers to indulge
Sep 26, 2015, Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/where-do-people-eat-the-mostmeat-2015–-9, Accessed April 13, 2020. From research by the “OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook
2015,” OECDiLibrary, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/oecd-fao-agriculturaloutlook-2015/meat_agr_outlook-2015-10-en
23 “India’s buffalo meat exports to plunge amid China clampdown on illegal imports,” by Rajendra
Jadhav, Reuters, January 31, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-meat-exports/indiasbuffalo-meat-exports-to-plunge-amid-china-clampdown-on-illegal-imports-idUSKCN1PQ3RZ,
Accessed April 13, 2020.
24 Statista, “Consumption volume of poultry meat in India from 2013–2019,” https://www.statista.
com/statistics/826711/india-poultry-meat-consumption/. Accessed April 13, 2020
25 Statista. “Consumption volume of beef and veal in India from 2015 to 2019 (in metric tons carcass weight equivalent),” https://www.statista.com/statistics/826722/india-beef-and-veal-consumption/. Accessed April 13, 2020.
26 op cit.,“Selling the Sacred Cow: India’s Contentious Beef Industry – In a country where cattle
are considered sacred, they’re also paradoxically becoming a lucrative export,” by Sena Desai
Gopal, February 12, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/selling-thesacred-cow-indias-contentious-beef-industry/385359/, Gopal’s data, in part, taken from: “Pink
revolution? Meat exports up in NDA regime,” HindustanTimes, by DK Singh and Timsy Jaipuria,
January 6, 2015, https://www.hindustantimes.com/business/pink-revolution-meat-exports-up-innda-regime/story-6GuGjvgHgPcnFyscGTqJ0O.html, in which the Narendra Modi policies are
elucidated with respect to the “subsiding slaughterhouses and promoting meat exports”.
27 ibid., S.D. Gopal.
41 The Conical Temple of Konawsh