RUPESH SAMANT

My memory of visiting this place around three years ago, guided me through the scenic and peaceful road that passes through the villages of Honda, Bhuipal and Valpoi to reach to this place.
A huge arch resembling the façade of any religious place welcomed me as I travelled a rough patch of the road that goes through a cashew plantation only to see three structures staring at you.
“Gau shala kramank ek”, means cow shed number one. I read it and I knew I am at the right place.
While entire India is discussing about beef ban and many talking about saving cows from the hands of butchers, the silent workers here are doing the work, miles away from the city life.
Jai Shri Ram Gau Sanvardhan Kendra at Valpoi has been actually practicing what many of our armchair defenders of Hindu religion have been preaching.
Hanumant Parab, chairman of the trust, recalls how the entire facility began with their initiative to save a cow from being butchered at Valpoi. The small time struggle turned into a mission when like minded people began rescuing cows which were heading towards slaughterhouses, illegally.
Before we actually talk about the struggle, we need to meet one person, Ramchandra Joshi, who is the pillar behind this initiative. When you visit this place, you will find Joshi, inevitably in the cow shed. Donning saffron lungi, Joshi, who is in his 60s, is busy looking after the cows.
At a care home for cows just outside Valpoi, dedicated staff lovingly tends to every need of its ageing bovine residents, recently saved from the slaughterhouses.
Some cows were brought to the home by their owners after becoming too old to be of any use to them while others were rescued from the clutches of unlawful slaughterhouses.
Several other bovines were taken in after being hit by vehicles while a few abandoned cattle had become ill from ingesting plastic after munching through garbage in search of food.
Surgery is performed on the injured cows and each one is tenderly nursed until it breathes its last. When the time comes, a priest is on hand to perform the last rites.
The help pours in regularly but that is not enough if we look at the number of bovines which are here. The meticulously maintained register of the trust dishes out a figure of 355 bovines which includes 93 cows which all belong to Indian breed.
Joshi and his family have leased this place for the trust on a 99-year long lease. The place is as huge as five acres and has the necessary infrastructure to maintain such huge number of bovines.
When people call up and inform about any cow which is in distress around that area, the members of trust rush to that spot without wasting any time.
In the entire herd, there is one bullock which attracts the most. It has an uncanny resemblance of Nandi, a mythical bovine which is always next to Lord Shiva. “People from all over Goa arrive here to worship this bullock which has been as popular as Nandi,” he said. “This cow has become star attraction of our gau shala,” says Parab.
Parab explains how it is becoming difficult to maintain such a huge number of bovines without any help from the state government. The stray cattle policy of the state animal husbandry department, which is in the final stages, is dragging its feet.
The fodder which is being sourced from Karnataka is also facing problems as the farmers from the neighboring state have began stopping the trucks carrying the material. The scarcity of fodder always haunts the facility.
But despite this, the efforts are not lessened. The trust members are working overtime in their mission.
Meanwhile, funds for the project sometimes pour in from various sources. The family of Margao based N D Naik was gracious enough to donate the money to construct one of the cow sheds.
The milk which is produced here is supplied to the people across Sattari and Bicholim taluka, that too through home delivery. The by-product of milk like lassi and curd is also produced and sold in the market.
Another interesting thing is that the cow urine which is collected here is used in the preparation of organic manure for the farms, mostly located in Sattari taluka.
The trust has matched this activity of ‘Gau Raksha’ with the spirituality. Every week there are programmes like ‘satsang’ and ‘pravachan’ being organised here which attracts huge crowd.
Promotion of Ayurveda is also done through trust wherein a medical practitioner from Kudal (Maharashtra) visits here to check the patients. Parab says the trust wants to make the activities all inclusive.
“We want to combine the faith with practical knowledge. People just talk about preserving cow. We believe in doing it,” he said.
The initiative has been getting good support from certain sections.
The Governor of Goa, Mridula Sinha is one of the renowned personalities to have visited this place and she has also adopted a cow from here. The cow has found a new home at Raj Bhavan. During her visit here she has planted a tree.