By Basu Ghosh das
On Thursday, December 1, along with Jasomatinandan Prabhu, ISKCON Gujarat Zonal Secretary, Acharya Dharmendra, famous (in North India) Vishwa Hindu Parishad (part time – he resides at Jaipur in his own temple) preacher and my “Sanskrit guru”, Acharya Samskritananda Hari (of “Kaushalya Pitham”, Baroda), we visited the “Bansi Gir Goshalla”, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The previous day we had been invited to visit this goshalla by Sri Chinubhai Patel, ex-Chairman of the Gujarat Government’s “Go Seva ayog” – “Service to the Cow Commission”. Sri Chinubhai is an ardent “go-sevak” (servant of the cows) and well know for this in Gujarat.”
The goshalla is the private endeavor of Sri Gopal Sutariya (Patel), who is a rich “builder” (“construction businessman”) of Ahmedabad.
He’s a “young entreprenuer” – he’s 36 years old – who spends four hours a day at the goshalla, looking after the 107 “exclusively” “gir” – one of India’s indigenous breeds of cattle – cows, bulls, calves and bullocks (just a few of them).
Gir cows are known for being a good milking breed of cattle. They are indigenous to the Saurashtra region of the present Gujarat state.
Here are some of the interesting features of the goshalla gathered during our visit there.
1. Cows and bulls are “pedigree”. Records of their lineage have been meticulously kept.
2. Records of the milk production of the present animals are kept, and records of the milk production of their ancestors are “in hand”.
3. All cattle are fed fresh, green grass (no dry grass).
4. Green grass grown at the goshalla is a special variety that grows upto 14 feet in height.
5. Only organic cattle feed is fed to the animals, in addition to the grass mentioned herein above.
6. Milk is being sold at Rs. 70 per liter by the goshalla (the local market rate is Rs. 25/30 per liter). Ghee is also produced. I neglected to ask about the retail rate he asks for that.
7. The goshalla has protected some cows and bulls that were slated for export to Brazil (where there is a sizeble population of “gir” cattle that were exported there from Gujarat in the past.
8. Sri Gopal Sutariya promised to donate us – we have a 45 animal exlcusively “gir” goshalla at ISKCON Baroda – a 1 year old bull, who would become a breeding bull in the future.
Pictures of the visit can be seen on the internet at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103360994652182030572/BansiGirGoshallaAhmedabad
or,
http://tinyurl.com/6ot83td