Gau seva
Feeding, watering and treating the cattle that mechanisation left on the road — and building them a permanent home.
What we do
The stray cattle problem is not an animal problem. It is a village problem.
Haryana is a leading dairy state, and yet its roads and fields are full of loose cattle. As tractors replaced bullocks and cross-bred animals replaced desi cows, old cows, unproductive cows and male calves stopped earning their feed — and stopped being fed. They now graze in standing crops, block highways at night, and die slowly of untreated injuries.
Everyone in a village loses from this. The small farmer loses a part of his crop. The motorcyclist loses far more. The animal loses everything. Our volunteers do what a small society can do about it: put out fodder and water, get a compounder or a veterinary officer to an injured animal, and arrange transport when a cow has to be moved.
This is the least satisfying work we do, because it treats a symptom. A cow fed today is loose again tomorrow. That is the reason the Sanstha has put its main effort behind a permanent shelter with its own income — a gau shala that does not run out of money in its third winter.
What support pays for
A cow fed is a day. A gau shala is a lifetime.
Regular giving is what this work needs most — fodder is a daily cost, not a one-time one. A standing monthly contribution, however small, is worth more to us than a large one-off gift, because it lets us commit to animals we will still be feeding next month.
- Daily fodderGreen fodder, bhusa and water for cattle being cared for
- TreatmentFirst aid, dressing of road injuries, deworming and vaccination
- RescueTransport for an injured or trapped animal to a place of treatment
- Permanent shelterThe 500-cow gau shala proposed in our project report
- Breed conservationCare and multiplication of desi breeds — Sahiwal, Gir and Haryana