You must have recently read that the debt-ridden Pakistan government under PM Imran Khan collected Rs 23 lakh when it auctioned eight buffaloes kept by former PM Nawaz Sharif. Even though not really related, but the Indian Army has closed down 15 military farms and sold over 6,000 imported Frieswal cows.
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The cows, according to reports, were sold to various States at a price of Rs 1,000 each and the Army plans to sell the remaining 9,000 high-yield milch cattle shortly. Furthermore, the remaining 24 military farms, a British-era legacy, will also be shortly closed down and land handed over to the local military authorities.
The decision to close down the army farms set up by the British to rear milch cattle for providing dairy products to the Armed forces was taken by the Government last year to improve teeth to tail ratio of the Army. It means more soldiers deployed for the operational role than static duties like maintenance of vehicles and farms amongst others.
The Indian Army has so far closed down 15 farms out of total 39 located all over the country. As regards 25,000 Frieswal cows, a cross breed between Holstein-Friesian cows of Netherlands and native Indian Sahiwal breed, the Army first decided to auction the milch cattle. Each cow can yield at an average of more than 3,500 litres of milk per lactation and costs Rs 1 lakh each.
However, there were no takers for the cows in the auction and the authorities then decided to sell each cow at a nominal price of Rs 1,000 each to various States provided they were ready to foot the transportation bill.
This project met success and 16,000 cows sold in the last few weeks. While 9,000 of the sold cattle were already dispatched the remaining 7,000 will be transported shortly, the officials added. Nagaland and West Bengal have already bought cows and some more States have shown interest, they said.
