New rules on animal slaughter, abattoirs shut down and the despair of Firoz

Firoz Alam had never imagined such hard times would come into his life. Just a few months ago, his shop in Shibpur, Howrah, saw a good footfall of customers. Back then, eight to ten kilograms of meat were easily sold every day. However, the situation changed almost overnight after the elections.

With slaughterhouses closed following a government directive, his two-generation-old business is now on the verge of collapse. Firoz faces a tough situation just trying to provide two meals a day for his family, which includes his wife, elderly mother and three children.

Crossing the Second Hooghly Bridge in West Bengal, India, near the Bataitala market, a tea-stall owner pointed out Firoz's shop upon simply hearing his name in front of the Dinabandhu Andrews Institution. Taking the road to the left from the Kazipara intersection and moving forward a bit, a young man in his thirties came forward with a smile at the entrance of a narrow alley.

Two and a half decades ago, his father used to sell meat in a tiny shop in this very alley. Firoz took over the shop five years ago after his father's death. His maternal uncle sits in the adjacent shop. Rather than business rivalry, they have always helped each other.

Firoz said, "We take turns bringing meat from the Tikiapara slaughterhouse. Large wholesale shops are lined up there. Meat is supplied to hotels and restaurants every day from there. But since the slaughterhouse closed, not all shops are in a position to open every day now."

After the BJP came to power in West Bengal, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's government issued a new directive in early May imposing strict conditions on cattle slaughter. Since then, an unprecedented financial and social crisis has emerged surrounding the beef market in the state. Following the imposition of the new directives and rules, the decision to make health check-up certificates mandatory for cattle at slaughterhouses has had a direct impact on the entire meat supply chain.

According to the directive, slaughtering cattle other than those over 14 years of age, or those completely incapable of physical labour and breeding, is prohibited. The responsibility of conducting health check-ups of the animals and issuing clearance certificates in this regard has been jointly assigned to the chairman of the respective municipality or the president of the panchayat samiti, along with a government-approved veterinary surgeon.

As a result of this administrative complexity and the strict enforcement of rules, the supply of cattle to animal slaughter centers in various parts of the state, including the government slaughterhouse in the Tangra area of Kolkata, has hit rock bottom.

Employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that since the introduction of the new restrictions, more than half of the animals brought for slaughter have had to be turned back as they failed to obtain health clearances. Consequently, the daily supply of meat in the market has taken a hit.

Incidentally, according to the fifth National Family Health Survey, West Bengal ranks second on the list of India's most non-vegetarian states. Various types of fish, meat and eggs are included in the daily diet of about 98.55 per cent of the people in this state. An average family tends to spend about 20 per cent of their monthly expenses on meat and fish. The survey also reported that the consumption of eggs and animal protein in the state has increased by about 17 per cent over the last five years.

Recently, a Hindu religious leader from another state criticised Bengalis for eating non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja, sparking intense public outrage against him. Right before the upcoming festive season, both buyers and sellers are worried as slaughterhouses remain non-operational due to the government directive. Meanwhile, rumors on social media about meat shops being closed during Devipaksha for Navaratri have caused an uproar. However, the state administration has thus far denied issuing any such notification.

Small-scale meat sellers, butchers and retail traders at local markets have taken the biggest hit due to the suspension of animal slaughter. Small meat shops that have been operating for decades in the markets of Kolkata, Howrah and surrounding districts are facing extreme uncertainty. For small traders, buying cattle for meat and the complex process of gathering administrative clearances have become the biggest problems. Buying animals from peripheral areas and bringing them to the city, gathering their correct age and health-related certificates and taking them to designated municipal slaughterhouses—this entire process multiplies both time and costs, concerned individuals claim.

Regarding this, Firoz Alam, a meat seller in the Kazipara area of Howrah, said, "We used to bring meat from the Tikiapara slaughterhouse. But the slaughterhouse has been closed for almost a month. Nothing clear has been said about when it will reopen. To keep the shop running, meat has to be brought through roundabout ways, which comes at a steep price for various reasons. Consequently, the resulting price of meat is making it difficult for middle-class and poor customers to buy."

Munabbar Ali, another meat seller in Howrah, said that due to strictness at government slaughterhouses, animals are being slaughtered illegally to meet market demand. He claims that with the Tikiapara slaughterhouse currently closed, cows and buffaloes are being slaughtered while evading the administration's vigilance in multiple locations in Arambagh, Uluberia, Duttapukur and Barasat.

Such animal slaughter is usually carried out in open fields and crop fields outside populated areas in the early morning. However, before that, everything is settled by speaking with the local panchayat authorities and a section of the law enforcement forces, definitely through financial transactions. Sellers transport that meat from these makeshift slaughterhouses to their shops in pickup vans or small trucks covered with tarpaulin. On the way, traffic police on the roads have to be paid ten to twelve thousand rupees per vehicle. In addition, he claims that the local police station has to be regularly kept ‘satisfied’ to get ‘approval’ to sell beef and buffalo meat in the area.

Besides having to buy products at higher rates from outside government slaughterhouses, meeting these extra costs has caused the price of meat to increase in just three to four months. Firoz says, "Even before the last Eid, beef was sold at Rs 250 per kg. But since the slaughterhouse closed, its price has now risen to Rs 350-360 per kg." For the same reason, along with beef, buffalo meat is also being sold at a higher price.

Like Firoz and Munabbar, Idris Ali, a meat seller in Park Circus, is on the verge of closing his business due to the government ban. Idris, who has been in this profession for nearly a dozen years, has never faced such a situation before. However, he does not believe the business of slaughtering animals outside authorized slaughterhouses will last long.

Meanwhile, the police have launched regular search operations and are conducting arrests with the aim of shutting down illegal slaughterhouses. For this reason, meat supply shortages are occurring frequently. Consequently, several low-capital sellers are losing their investments and being forced to wind up their businesses overnight, a shop owner in Topsia said. For the same reason, sellers are being forced to keep their meat shops closed one after another in the historic New Market in the Dharmatala area of Kolkata.

Due to this massive supply shortage, several popular restaurants in the city have been forced to remove many of their popular beef dishes. Due to a lack of meat supply, people are being disappointed when ordering beef rolls, beef biryani or beef steaks at many traditional restaurants like Nizams, Zam Zam, Olypub or Mocambo.

Cooking mutton or chicken dishes as alternatives is not bringing much relief, claims a restaurant owner in the Beckbagan area. To manage the situation in the dining halls of five-star hotels, beef has to be bought online at steep prices, an official in charge of the kitchen at a popular hotel in the Alipore area stated. However, hotel authorities are anxious about how long it will be possible to keep beef dishes on the menu this way.

On the other hand, in several roadside shops in central Kolkata, kebabs, rezala, tikiya, bhuna, etc. are being prepared using buffalo meat as an alternative to beef, although a popular food vlogger from Dum Dum complained that it doesn't bring out the taste like beef. He claims that taking advantage of this, several restaurants on online platforms are freely passing off 'buff', meaning buffalo meat as beef.

The impact of such a beef crisis has not only affected humans. It has also put the carnivorous residents of the Alipore Zoo, such as tigers, lions and leopards, in trouble. With the slaughter of buffaloes and other cattle halted or limited at the Tangra slaughterhouse, the daily feed for those animals has been hit.

As companies supplying buffalo meat to the zoo failed to renew their registration and maintain supply, zoo authorities are being forced to buy goat meat at four times the price to feed the carnivorous animals. Consequently, the allocated budget for food at the government zoo has skyrocketed overnight, which has ultimately created additional financial pressure at the administrative level.

Due to the closure of slaughterhouses by government order, the struggle of daily life has become difficult for many others associated with it, besides meat sellers. That list includes small traders, the vast majority of whom are Hindu.They ran their households by taking loans from moneylenders to buy and raise calves and then selling the adult cattle.

Following the imposition of conditions on animal slaughter through the government notice, instead of profits, the burden of debt has fallen on their shoulders. The crisis has deepened further due to the collapse of the rural economy associated with the buying and selling of cattle. Farmers in rural areas who used to sell old or useless cattle to buy new ones or raise money for family needs are also not finding buyers now.

As the buying and selling of cattle in markets has decreased, it has also impacted the rural economy. Added to this is a severe shortage of raw materials in the leather industry and tanneries. As a result, many small-scale traders who collect the skins of dead animals from slaughterhouses and supply them to tanneries are suffering losses.

A seller in Tikiapara lamented that no ray of hope has been seen so far regarding how to resolve the difficult problem faced by meat outlets, restaurants, and various associated businesses as a result of the government ban. "The government slaughterhouse is closed. In the meantime, although it was said it would reopen twice, it ultimately didn't happen. I don't know how much longer I can keep the shop open by struggling like this," said local trader Shamser Alam. Firoz from Kazipara sighed and said, "Perhaps this time there will be no other way left but to pull a rickshaw."