By Gauranga prasad das

Cow urine trade goes official

Lucknow, Feb. 5: The Uttarakhand government will now buy and sell 5,000 litres of cow urine every day. The government will purchase cow urine from cow owners and then sell it to Ayurveda pharmacies like Patanjali Yogpeeth and Geeta Bhavan, which have volunteered to buy the product for use in manufacture of Ayurvedic medicines.

The government plans to create a market later where cow owners can interact directly with buyers. According to Uttarakhand minister for animal husbandry Trivendra Rawat, ‘We have got an order for 5,000 litres of cow urine per day from Patanjali Yogpeeth pharmacy, owned by Yoga guru Swami Ramdev, and Geeta Bhavan. Swargashram Rishikesh, too, has shown keen interest in buying cow urine for Ayurvedic medicines. We plan to buy cow urine though milk cooperatives at Rs 5 per litre.’

The programme was launched in Kalsi, in Chakrata tehsil of Dehradun, earlier this month. The next phase will begin from Srinagar in Garhwal area later this month. Nearly 1,900 active milk cooperatives will be engaged to collect cow urine which will later be sold to Ayurvedic pharmacies. The urine of 26 species of cows, named Badri, has a richer herbal residue content compared to that of cows found in the plains. ‘Badri’ urine has a unique quality to treat cancer, claim experts. Ayurvedic chemists vouch for the medicinal properties of distilled cow urine.

‘Cow urine has the same potential as Ciplox and Amoxicilin in allopathic medicines to fight diseases,’ said Rakesh Bahuguna, an Ayurvedic chemist. The minister said Uttarakhand did not have the facilities to make cow urine concentrate and the government is keen to start a cow research institute. Mr Rawat visited Kanpur recently to study the upkeep of cow sheds being run in Uttar Pradesh. A team of officials also visited Jaipur to evaluate the work being done in Rajasthan. ‘We want to collect all information so that we can have an excellent research facility in the proposed cow research institute,’ he said.

Article appeared in Deccan Chronicle (a Hyderabad-India Daily) on Feb 05 2008.

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