Drought has not just affected the crops and farmers in the state but cattle as well. In the last five months, nearly five cows have died every day in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris district. In villages of Moyar, Masinagudi, Balacola alone, nearly 300 cattle have died. The reason for the deaths is lack of green fodder and water.

R Narayanan, 45, a farmer in Moyar said he had lost more than 50 of his cows to drought in the last six months. "Even today, nearly five cows have not returned after grazing. I will have to go check tomorrow if they are alive," he said.

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Another farmer at Masinagudi said, "Last week nearly 20 cattle died in the village. The revenue officials are always informed about it but no steps are taken. They do not even conduct post-mortem," said a farmer.

Narayanan said often the doctor is not paid by the district authorities for conducting postmortems on the carcasses. "So, doctors refuse to come and ask us to click pictures and cut open the cows on our own. We refused to do that and dumped the carcasses," said Narayanan. "These cows were not just our livelihood but a part of our lives as well. I spent nearly 8 lakhs in the last year to get fodder for my cows. Yet, I could not save them," he said.

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Environmentalists say districts such as Erode, Salem and Coimbatore were also equally affected. In 2000, during a similar drought, a number of cattle had died. "At that time, rains arrived and the deaths stopped after a few weeks. But this time, the cows continue to die," said Narayanan.

S Bharatidasan of Arulagam, a member of an NGO, said he had found as many as 59 decomposed bodies of cows in just 1 sq km while on a visit to a village in the Nilgiris. "I was shocked to find 59 decomposed bodies of cows in just one sq km area. This is atrocious. If the same cows were killed by a tiger, it will be a national issue," he said, adding that almost all the cows had lots of plastic waste in their intestines. "Lack of fodder must have made them eat garbage," he said.