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12/9/2016
Introduction:
There is an ecological crisis in India and since the majority of the population self
identifies as Hindu, it seems that the answer to the ecological crisis may lie within this
ancient religion. India is one of the most densely populated countries with a fast growing
economy. The Green Revolution in 1960 was a driving force for the industrialization
and agricultural development. Anil Agarwal made the statement blaming Hinduism for
this crisis, Hinduism, is a highly individualistic religion. It looks into the self,
emphasizing the atman as the key to spiritual decent. Dharma focuses first on oneself,
emphasizing ones own behavior. The consequence of ones behavior plays a secondary
role. One of the major environmental crisis is a production of livestock, and the most
intensive livestock to raise is cows. According to Grim and Tucker, in Hinduism there is
a focus on completing ones dharma as well as achieving moksha (Grim & Tucker,
2014). Dharma is concept in Hinduism for duty and responsibility, especially regarding
ones life path while Moksha is a Hindu term for liberation from the world of suffering
through spiritual practice and meditation (Grim & Tucker, 2014). Cows are a
multifaceted creature with environmental and spiritual significance in India. The Hindu
religion regards cows as sacred, therefore the cattle crisis in India has a direct
relationship to the religion. Indias consumption of beef is one of the lowest in the world,
and less than 2 percent of United States consumption. The goal of this paper is to
analyze the history of the sanctity of cows in India and the environmental impact cows
have on India.
Spiritual Significance
India and all over the world it seems almost ironic that they are also held very sacred in
the Hindu culture. According to Cultural India, Hinduism is the worlds third largest
religion and is the worlds oldest religion. Over 80% of the population in India identifies
as Hindu making it the major religion in India. In the Hindu religion cows are not
worshiped, though they are considered sacred and deeply respected. The religion is
based on the idea that humans and animals live many times in different forms based on
their behavior (Cultural India). The atman and brahman is part of this basis, the atman is
the individual soul and the brahman is the collective or cosmic soul. The body houses
the atman until the body dies, but the atman lives on and is born into a different body.
The traditions of Hinduism has been passed down through the Vedas, which means
knowledge. The Vedas are a large body of Vedic texts written in Sanskrit. These are
The cow has had rich symbolism in Hindu mythology dating back to Vedic
culture, in fact cows are mentioned in Vedic literature more often than any other animal
(Korom, 2000). The cow played an important role in the Vedic culture more specifically
as a sacrifice. The basis of the recurring life was believed to be based on the
continuance of the sacrifice or yajna, and without maintenance of the ritual the universe
would fall out of balance (Korom, 2000). Since the cow was at the center of this sacrifice
the importance of the cow in india, the one thing that we understand from the Vedic era
is that the cow was identified with the totality of the universe (Korom, 2000). In one of
the Vedas, Atharvaveda calls the cow the "all-producing and all-containing universe.
The Mahbhrata has a passage that states that if you kill a cow you will live in hell for
as many years as there are hairs on the cow (Korom, 2000). It wasn't until 1921, when
1954). According to William Crooke, the cow is the most powerful link which binds
2000). A central belief of Hinduism is that the cow is good, whole, and pure, and
cow that encompasses all aspects of life. Each aspect of life is drawn in the body of the
cow to depict this view. Up until the last few decades, religious Hindu households had a
cow in their backyard. This was because a cow was their source for food, worship, fuel,
antiseptic cleaning agent and a farming input (Viswanathan, 2014). The devine bovine
goddess in Hinduism is called Kamadhenu and she is the mother of all cows. All cows
Klostermaier, some laws treat the killing of a man of a lower caste or outcast as a lesser
Environmental Impacts
Many people believe that since cows have religious symbolism in Hinduism,
which is a majority religion in India, cow slaughter has been banned in all of India. Their
lives and treatment are therefore better than in cattle industries in other parts of the
world, but this belief is not correct. While there are some cities in India where cow
slaughter is banned, there are also many cities with no such laws. Even in the states,
where legislation has been passed to ban slaughter, there are many loopholes to get
around these bans (Humane Society, 2005). Global meat production has increased over
300% in the last 30 years, according to Harold Mooney an ecologist and professor at
throughout the country. According to Mooney, in 2010 there were 1.7 billion animals
used as livestock which in 2010 was nearly a quarter of the worlds human population.
According to Rob Cook, cattle accounts for around half of the total livestock in the world
(Cook, 2016). India, where Hinduism is one of the major religions, has the largest herd
of cattle in the world, in 2009 there was over 170 million cattle to produce milk (Fact
Sheet, 2011). In rural India cow dung is used as fuel and fertilizer as well.
to feed the more than 1.7 billion animals requires a lot of food. Feed production requires
a lot of water, fertilizer, pesticides and fossil fuels. Around 10% of Indias course grain
production and 50% of corn goes to animal feed (Fact Sheet, 2011). In 2008, around
22% of the cattle in India was used to produce milk. According to a report released by
the humane society there has been an increase in the demand for dairy products in
India and this will put more and more pressure on the system (Fact Sheet, 2011). This
means that the more traditional forms of raising cattle will be stressed and switched to
The production of livestock has many environmental impacts including land use,
greenhouse gas emissions, water use, fossil fuel use and pollution. One of the major
environmental impacts of livestock including cattle is land use. Livestock occupies more
than one-fourth of the earths land (Mooney, 2010). The production of food for livestock
also takes up about one-third of the total arable land (Mooney, 2010). According to the
Humane Society, it is the largest human-induced user of land (Fact Sheet, 2010).
Greenhouse gas emissions are another way that raising cattle impacts the
environment, through the emissions of large amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, and
other greenhouse gases. According to a fact sheet released by the Humane Society in
2011, animal agriculture makes up 18% of the global anthropogenic greenhouse gas
emissions, including 9% of the carbon dioxide, 35-40% of methane and 65% of nitrous
oxide that humans release (Fact Sheet, 2011). All of these greenhouse gases contribute
to climate change.
one cow. It is estimated that to produce one pound of beef it takes 1,799 gallons of
water (Sparling, et. all, 2016). (McAllister et al., 2012). Since dairy production is the
main market for livestock in India, it is important that I mention the inputs specifically
related to the production of dairy. In order to keep the facilities where the cows are
milked sanitary, many of these facilities have power flushers to remove waste, dirt and
excess milk from the floor. These power flushers use an estimated 150 gallons of water
per cow, per day. The intensive use of water has a major impact on water supply, meat
production also reduces water supply through pollution. Stephanie Kaza mentions the
study in The Consumers Guide to Effective Environmental Choices done by the Union
of Concerned Scientists that meat production is the leading cause of agricultural water
pollution (Kaza, 2008). This is because the manure from feed lots runs off into ground
water.
Fossil fuels are also a large input for meat. It is estimated that one calorie of
animal meat uses 10 times the amount of fossil fuel energy as one calorie of plant
based foods, and more specifically, grain-fed beef requires 35 fossil fuel calories for
every one calorie produced (Good, 2015). The way that fossil fuels are used as inputs
for meat production as somewhat indirect. 75 percent of fossil fuels used in livestock
production comes from feed (Good, 2015). The fertilizers used for the production of feed
are responsible for the majority of the fossil fuel use. According to David Pimental,
ecologists from Cornell who specializes in agriculture and energy, an average steer
consumes 284 gallons of oil in his lifetime (Robbins, 2012). So you can see how the
more by-products of cattle a person consumes, the more fossil fuels they will be
Pollution is a by-product of the other four impacts that raising cattle has on the
environment. There are two main ways that livestock produce pollution; waste and
agricultural chemicals. In 2001, the EPA stated A single dairy cow produces about 120
pounds of wet manure per day (EPA, 2001). While in traditional farming methods
manure is used to fertilize the fields, but factory farms produce way to much for the land
percent of agricultural chemicals are used to grow crops for animal feed (United
Nations, 2006). These chemical inputs pollute the land, water, and air with nitrogen,
associated with raising livestock is also somehow associated with pollution. The
massive amounts of land used for the production of livestock gets polluted by the
manure, the air is polluted by greenhouse gases, and the water supply is polluted by
There are many environmental hazards associated with cattle, but most of them
are due to factory farming practices and could be avoided if traditional practices were
implemented. Since the Hindu religion bans violence, or ahmisa, it seems logical that
these cows in India would not be subjected to the horrible treatment associated with
factory farming. While there have been laws passed in many Indian states protecting
the cow, it seems the industrialization and agriculture have found ways around these
laws and continue to produce animal products in an inefficient and violent way.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the sanctity of a cow in the Hindu religion has not abetted the
environmental hazards of raising a cow. With the demand for dairy in India growing
rapidly, there is a need to find ways to convince people that changes in practices need
to be made. Since Hinduism is just the major religion of India and not the only religion it
is important the religious ideologies are combined with economic and social ideologies
in order to find a wholistic solution. It seems that cow worship could be a good place to
start in order to make the shift in the farming practices. Since there has been such a rich
when you treat the cows better, you also treat the environment better. These go hand in
hand, so as Hindu continues to influence the culture of India, the more likely it is that the
industry will move towards environmentally friendly practices. India is already on the
right track to cutting down their pollutants, but they still have a long way to go.
Bibliography
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~ Fact Sheet, The Impact of Animal Agriculture on the Environment and Climate
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