Hansraj students protest ‘cow shelter’

Denying the charge, college principal Rama Sharma said ‘one cow in a shed doesn’t mean that the college has set up a gaushala.’

A cow shelter was being set up under the guise of setting up a centre for research on cow products, students of Delhi University’s Hansraj College have alleged.

Representative Image

The students, who launched an online petition against the centre, said the college authorities have set up a “gaushala” in the name of Swami Dayanand Cow-Protection and Research Centre on the college premises. They also claimed that the land on which the centre has come up was reserved for a women’s hostel.

College principal Rama Sharma refuted the allegations, and said that one cow in a shed doesn’t mean that the college has set up a gaushala.

“We only have one cow at the centre for research purposes. Cow dung, cow milk, and other cow products will be used for research at the facility. If we wanted to set up a gaushala, we would have used a bigger area for the facility. We saw that the demand for cow products increased a lot during Covid. Cow dung is being used a lot in many ways nowadays. Our students could engage in cow-related research and innovation. We could start a plant to produce cow-dung rich manure in college or other new interventions,” said Sharma.

“We, the students of Hansraj, unconditionally condemn and protest the construction of a gaushala, dubbed as a Swami Dayanand Cow-Protection and Research Centre at the very site which was reserved for a women’s hostel whose construction has been on hold for many years now,” the online petition said.