GUNTUR: After IIT, IIM and AIIMS, Andhra Pradesh is going to be feathered with a rare project.

A first-of-its-kind university dedicated to conserving cows is coming up in Guntur.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) has planned to set up a cow university near Kondaveedu where it is constructing a prestigious Krishna temple. The very idea behind the setting up of a cow university is to protect aging cows while providing employment to illiterate village youth.

“This is for the first time in the world that a university to teach how to earn while conserving disappearing cows is being set up,” Iskcon representative Ravindra Krishna told TOI.

He said that they would be launching a gosala (shelter for cows) costing Rs1 crore at Kondaveedu on July 13 and works for setting up the university would begin soon.

“Cow is a wonderful gift given by God to the humankind. It would keep helping us earn till its death,” he explained.

He also said that they would teach how to make medicines and other value addition products even from cowdung and the urine of an aged cow, adding that a youth could make at least Rs 30,000 per month if he could acquire 20 old cows which were being sent to slaughterhouses.

He said that Guntur district was chosen for the project because farmers here were using high quantities of pesticides causing severe damage to the health of humankind. He said that such pesticides could be replaced with bio-pests made of cow products.

Iskcon South India chief, Satyagopinath Das said that Puri Jagannath Rathyatra would be conducted in Guntur from Iskcon temple to Sri Venkateswara Vignana Mandiram on July 14.