Puri:A monk in Odisha has launched a campaign to save the state’s native cow breeds that are on the brink of extinction.
Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, the spiritual leader of the Kriya Yoga of Prajnana Mission, has kept over 150 cows of Odisha’s indigenous varieties at his ashrams and urges others, especially farmers, to follow suit.
Prajnanananda, 55, said he stayed three years ago in Rajasthan where such conservation had proved successful.
After returning to Odisha, he started collecting native varieties cows and nurturing them.
“The milk we consume today from hybrid cow is type A1 which can contribute to diseases. But the milk of the native cow is type A2 which is good for health,” Prajnanananda told IANS, seated in Hariharananda Gurukulam, an ashram near Puri city.
Situated in the natural surrounding of forests, about 60 km from Bhubaneswar, the ashram houses over 50 cows and calves, mostly of Odisha’s indigenous varieties as well as over 200 stray cattle.
The milk produced by the cows cater to the daily needs of hundreds of ashram inmates and regular visitors.
The Hariharananda Balashram, the Prajnana Mission’s another religious centre in Kendrapada district, his birthplace, also houses about 85 cows and calves.
He said efforts were under way to collect more such cows.
“From time immemorial the cow has been the backbone of our agrarian economy,” he told IANS. “The milk, curd, ghee, cow dung and cow urine of the native cows have medicinal properties.”He lamented that their use has been almost lost.
Prajnanananda has been organising meetings across the state in recent years, motivating farmers to go for and protect the indigenous cow. “Many of them have started preserving the native varieties,” he said.
The native cow’s population in Odisha was 13,144,359 in 2003. This fell to 10,315,499 according to the livestock census of 2012, the most recent.(IANS)
