Gau-Raksha has been mocked by the left-liberal establishment for long. The leftist cabal hates cow protection because the animal is associated with Hinduism. Historically speaking, cows have been an integral part of the family wealth among Hindus. The Shri Gopal Gaushala is the best example of how a cow shelter could play an important part in wealth creation. The gaushala on the outskirts of Barmer, a town in south-western Rajasthan churned a revenue of over 35 million rupees and a profit of 5 million rupees in FY 2017-18. On an average, 600 liters of milk is produced every day and distributed to dairies across the city.
The gaushala earned 11 million rupees in last fiscal year from the sale of milk and biofertilizers. The state government of Rajasthan also supports cow shelter with the monetary transfer of 32 rupees for every cow and 16 rupees for every calf. There are 1,258 cows in the gaushala and 25 people are employed to look after them. In the last fiscal year, the management has spent 20 million rupees in the feeding of cows and 2 million rupees on building a new cow shelter. The management said that the new center would be bigger than the older one.
The Shri Gopal Gaushala was established in 1998 with 31 founding members. Every member contributed an equal amount of 1 lakh rupees for initial expenditure. There are 2 warehouses in the Gaushala for the storage of cattle feed. “We purchase best cattle feed which doesn’t have any trace of dust or soil in it. Most of it is bought from farmers after the post-monsoon harvest season for 11 rupees a kg. This stock will be enough to feed all these cows for three months” said Leena Rai, a caretaker in the Gaushala. There is the stock of pellets made from corn and mustard to cater to the nutrition needs of the cows. A separate shelter has been built to keep the sick cows. The doctors from Delhi visit the Gaushala to look after ill cows and they are paid 6,000 rupees per visit.
Almost 120 calves are born every year, there is a separate shelter for them. The management has also built a guest house for tourists who visit the Gaushala to perform religious rituals. The tourists come from bordering districts as well as from the neighboring state of Gujarat. The traffic of tourist is highest on occasions like the new moon (Amavasya) and full moon (Poornima). The medium of donation of Gaushala is very interesting, a cow and a calf are weighted and the donor is free to donate things like jaggery, cattle feed equalling their weight. The officials accept cash equal to the value of the weight, the Gaushala received donations worth 8.7 million rupees. There is also a temple of Bhagwan Krishna in the middle of the temple.
Vasundhara Raje government has been very supportive of cow shelters. Rajasthan government created a separate Cow Welfare Ministry. The state will soon have a ‘cow sanctuary’, spread over 200 acres in Bikaner district with shelter for 10,000 cows. The state government is also setting up biogas plants at cow shelters, it is the first state in the country to do so. The biogas plants are expected to become an important source of income for Gaushalas.
