Pathmeda is famous for having Asia’s biggest goshalas, or cowsheds. The organization shelters thousands of cows and raises funds from various cow products.While it may have its own issues and scandals, the management does have a good reputation for encouraging cow protection.
It is reported that due to heavy rains in Rajasthan this year, hundreds of cows died. While different news agencies have reported different numbers, it is believed that almost a thousand cows, along with scores of other animals and human beings, have succumbed to death.
Human beings are quick in accusing the nature for any so-called natural calamity, be it floods, droughts or earthquakes. The question here is, was it really heavy rains that killed the cows? Or was it the monstrous stock of water stored in Jalore’s Panchala Dam? It is reported that due to heavy rains the government authorities were forced to release water from the dam and within 15-20 minutes the water level in the goshala rose up to about 6 feet leaving very little chance for the management to save all the cows.
Have you ever seen rain waters causing such instant rise in water level? We have heard of water level rising quickly in cities due to inadequate drainage system and concrete roads and buildings, but villages do not see such scenario as they have natural ability to absorb and distribute rain waters.
One may argue that the dam water was released to save more damage. True, but why in the first place try to dictate the rivers and tell them where to flow? Why try to be more intelligent than God who has made a natural system to maintain a perfect ecological balance on the planet?
What makes humans insanely proud and control freak wanting to control the nature when they cannot control even their own nature’s calls?
Dams are demons in the sense that they are destined to break and crate havoc today or tomorrow. This is a known and unavoidable fact as maintenance cannot go on for ever and there are extremely lean chances of governments dismantling dams before they strike calamities. And if you think dams are there to generate electricity, then again. there are better way to achieve that end. How can we knowingly create monsters that we know will destroy us one day? Isn’t that common sense?
So it is not really the rain god or the nature who caused the tragedy. It is not the rivers who flooded the goshalas. While the management should have been better equipped to deal with such eventuality, it cannot be fully blamed for the tragedy either.
The responsibility goes to us, the over intelligent, over-greedy human beings as a class, who have gone recklessly insane after sense gratification and causing havoc on the planet and its ecological system by relentlessly inventing bizarre ideas in a rat-race to control the nature. The reality, however, is that humans are destined to fail in all such attempts.
According to controller of Pathmeda, Punam Singh Rajpurohit, the deluge led to flooding of the cow shelters and damaged its basic infrastructure. The stored fodder has been destroyed. “The total loss is yet to be ascertained but it must be in crores,” said Rajpurohit adding 3,000 more cows are battling for life and entire staff of the gaushalas and cow-loving volunteers endeavouring hard to save them. On the other hand, the gaushalas is badly in need of fodder, medicines and other resources but government is yet to act despite the ministers having visited these gaushala and experienced the loss and death of cows…(Source)
According to sources, shelters run by Pathmeda Trust are the worst affected.The trust runs over 10 gaushalas in Rajasthan, which house over 50,000 cattle. It also runs the Pathmeda Gaushala at Sanchore, which is Asia’s largest cow shelter. On Thursday … Rajasthan floods kill 800 cows at gaushalas in Jalore, Sirohi
Unfortunately there are people who see politics in everything and try to suck out some political advantage from anything that happens in the world. In this tragedy they have found an opportunity to criticize the Gau rakshakas, the cow vigilantes, saying they did not show up to protect the cows.
It goes without saying that we do not endorse violence in the name of protecting cows but to blame genuine cow protectors for not coming to aid during this time makes very little sense. Nor does it mean that they should give up protecting cows in whatever capacity they may be doing.