E-Paper
Cow whisperers of Kumaon
An elderly couple in Kumaon has, for over 25 years, maintained a shelter for unwanted cattle.
It is a typical Kumaoni house in the far-off village of Kulsari in Chamoli district, Uttaranchal. Over a score of cattle, mainly cows and bulls, most of them physically impaired and infirm, mill about in front of the house.
Some are tethered to peach and plum trees nearby while others are in the flagstone-paved courtyard.
A septuagenarian man places bales of fresh fodder for the animals while a grizzled old lady cleans the place. As they look upon the cattle, their tired old faces glow with childlike joy.
The gentleman, weak but dauntless, is Ghanand Purohit, a retired schoolteacher.
For over 25 years he has maintained, entirely on his own a shelter for physically infirm and impaired cattle abandoned by their owners.
The number of such "unproductive" cows and bulls is now over 30 in the 'gaushala' that he runs with the sole help of his aging wife in his ancestral home.
"She cleans the shed every morning and even brings fodder from the jungle around for the cattle," says Purohit. "It all began at Gopeshwar, a small settlement on way to the last border village called Mana."
Serving as a schoolteacher there he once came across a newborn calf abandoned by migrant herdsman from Mana, simply because its mother had died in delivery and keeping such an ill-omened calf was not acceptable to its master.
"I brought that calf home and along came the idea of a shelter."
The practice of disowning such unproductive cattle is common in the hills, so there were many homeless animals: "When I retired, I went home with 22 such animals in a truck," says Purohit.
The former teacher gets a pension of Rs 3,987 while maintaining the herd could not be less than Rs 5,000 per month.
With no help save from their only son, the principal of a public school in Solan, these unassuming elders manage as best as they can, eating just the evening meal, which they feel is enough at this age.
"It is our kind of worship," they both declare staunchly.
