Tempers are rising in the cool climes of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu’s gateway to neighbouring Kerala, and the beef is over beef. Cattle traders, transporters as well as beef merchants in this city have been on strike since July 19, demanding an end to the growing seizure of animals being trucked to Kerala.Coimbatore’s animal rights groups have always been critical of the cattle trade when not conducted in accordance with rules. But in the past six months, their cause has been joined by saffron groups such as the Hindu Munnani (Hindu Front), Hindu Makkal Katchi (Hindu People’s Party) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad. The result: intensified protests, increased stoppage of trucks, and seizure of hundreds of cattle headed to Kerala’s abattoirs.“Animal rights groups like Blue Cross as well as the Animal Welfare Board have stopped our trucks once in a while in the past 10 years,” said Thendral Selvaraj of the Tamil Nadu Cattle Traders Association. “But now these Hindu groups are instigating the animal rights groups to harass us. They are really going overboard.”The ripples of this fracas have been felt hard in Kerala. A state where an estimated 70% of the population is non-vegetarian, Kerala requires 1,000 tonnes of beef a day. Since it doesn’t rear enough cattle to meet this demand, it imports them from neighbouring states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. All these states have, in recent times, seen some agitations against cattle trade into Kerala. But none has had the effect on Kerala’s menus as the protests in Tamil Nadu.For two days in late July, the Kerala State Meat Workers Congress shut all meat shops and slaughterhouses in the state as beef supplies dried up and prices shot up from Rs 150 a kilo to Rs 250-300 a kilo. Hotels too refused to serve the meat, according to the Indian Express.Taking note of the public sentiment, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa on August 11, requesting her to look into the issue at the earliest. “Nowadays, there is a trend in different parts of Tamil Nadu to seize the cattle being transported to Kerala by certain organisers with the help of local police and the seized cattle are sent to different private cattle sheds,” he wrote. “Once the cattle are seized by these organisers, the merchants from Kerala are not getting back these cattle. This will lead to huge loss on the part of the merchants from Kerala.”This escalation hasn’t moved the protesting groups in Coimbatore. They form parties on the highway where the Coimbatore bypass to Kerala begins and stop trucks carrying cattle from entering Kerala. In the past month, Cattle Care Coimbatore, which is spearheading the protests in the city, says they rescued 190 heads of cattle, and in June, 300 heads of cattle. All of these are housed in a goshala in Narsipuram, 36 kilometres from Coimbatore.



Credit: A Joseph

S Nizamuddin, founder of Cattle Care Coimbatore, said, “We are not associated with any saffron outfits... We are not against anyone eating beef or killing cows. Our only issue is that the law must be followed and cattle must be treated in a humane manner while being transported.”Nizamuddin alleges that transporters overload trucks with cattle in violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. Also, they don’t make proper arrangements for food and water for the animals. Even diseased cattle, he claimed, are sent across the state lines to Kerala’s slaughterhouses, a health hazard in itself.Fellow protester Siva Kumar agrees. Kumar is the owner of Coimbatore-based Sridevi Textiles, a company worth over Rs 100 crore. He is also the owner of Vellingiri goshala, a shelter for cattle that is currently home to more than 1,200 rescued animals. Of these, 206 are Jallikattu bulls – a special breed bred and trained in Tamil Nadu for the sport of bull chasing. Kumar says that since the Supreme Court imposed a ban on the traditional sport, Jallikattu bulls were being sold to slaughterhouses. He and Nizamuddin went around neighbouring Madurai district buying over 200 of these bulls from owners to prevent them from being killed.“We are fighting for the rights of the animal,” said Kumar. “People try to give us a communal colour, but we don’t want that. The government should ensure that cruelty should not occur while these cattle are being transported. There is something called a conscience, which goes beyond law.”Nizamuddin and Kumar are wary of being painted as saffron votaries because, in recent times, several saffron groups have taken up the same cause as them. “It is inhumane,” exclaimed TC Senthil Kumar, secretary of the Hindu Makkal Katchi. “30-35 cattle are transported per lorry, norms are not followed. Cattle are pushed down from the lorry and their legs break. Horns of bulls injure other cattle. This kind of thing is more cruel than killing the animal.”



Credit: A Joseph

Meanwhile, in Kerala, with Onam around the corner, beef merchants are worried that beef prices may be too high for the common man. “We have asked our chief minister to immediately set this right or else we will strike,” said P Sudhakaran, secretary of the Kerala State Meat Workers Congress in Thiruvananthapuram. “Next week is Onam so there will be more demand for beef. If this issue is not resolved, we will go on strike after Onam as we do not want to disturb the smaller butcher shops during festival time.”After Chandy’s letter, the Tamil Nadu government is making desperate attempts to bring peace between the clashing groups in Coimbatore. A meeting called by the Coimbatore District Collector on August 13 ended with no concrete outcome as cattle traders and animal rights groups left after engaging in a slanging match.“The government told us that they will look into whether they can ease the rules in the 1960 Act, which make no sense now,” said Thendral Selvaraj of the Tamil Nadu Cattle Traders Association. “They said they will get back to us after consultations on whether trucks can be allowed to carry 24 cows weighing less than 200 kilos each, or 12 cows of 400 kilos each. The Collector has said another meeting will be called soon to resolve the issue.”Saffron groups, however, are sticking to their guns. “A month ago, the Madras High Court ordered a Jain goshala to release rescued cows but the goshala owners refused,” said Hindu Makkal Katchi’s Senthil Kumar. “These people are transporting little calves to be killed.”