Drought sparks distress sale of cattle

Hyderabad: Acute shortage of fodder triggered by prolonged heat wave across Telangana is driving thousands of farmers to sell off their cattle.
The Telangana Goshala Federation, which works for the rescue and protection of cattle in the state through its network of 120 'goshalas' spread over all the 10 districts, including 41 in Hyderabad, said 2.15 lakh cattle were sold away by farmers in the last one month alone.
Such is the magnitude of the crisis that the sight of farmers trudging alongside their famished cattle to the nearest weekly angadi (market) is quite common.
"I am taking our two oxen to the weekly market at Gajwel on Wednesday, 14 kilometres from our village. There is no dry fodder to feed them as our two-acre paddy crop withered away this Kharif season," said O Srisailam, a 22-year-old graduate-turned farmer at Yetigadda Kistapur village in Dubbak mandal in Medak district.
For hundreds of farmers like Srisailam, there is no other way but to sell their cattle at weekly markets for survival.
"Both the oxen consume one tractor load of hay a month but it costs a whopping Rs 6,000 in our village. So, the best thing is to sell them," said Srisailam, while hoping that his pair of oxen would fetch Rs 40,000- Rs 50,000 when he goes to the market on Wednesday.
However, animal activists say that getting a good price for cattle at this time is unlikely. "A healthy bull that commands a price of Rs 20,000 during normal times is now being sold at half the price as the buyers know that the farmer cannot afford to keep the animal during this crisis," said Mahesh Agarwal, president, Telangana Goshala Federation.
Ironically, things are worse for the 41 'goshalas' in Hyderabad as there is no fodder available though they have money to buy it to feed their nearly 25,000 cattle.
So grim is the situation that many 'goshala' owners are forced to cut down on the daily feed for the draught and milch animals they shelter to 1/3rd of the quota and even stopped the supply of appetising rock salt.