Withdraw scheme for research on Indigenous Cows, appeal scientists

GUWAHATI: Scientists in India have made an appeal asking the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to withdraw SUTRA-PIC scheme, SUTRA stands for Scientific Utilization through Research Augmentation-Prime Products from Indigenous Cows.

“We, the concerned scientists and science communicators of this country, are extremely perturbed by the recent call for research proposals under the SUTRA-PIC India Program of SEED, DST. This call lists five thematic areas and each of them have their own set of problems,” states the appeal letter.

The scheme which calls for doing research on uniqueness of Indigenous Cows talks about “some possible examples of such qualities which it hoped would be non-controversial but has left wide scope open to imagination of which other real or imaginary qualities may be investigated. This opens the possibility of money under this theme being wasted to ‘investigate’ imaginary qualities derived from religious scriptures,” scientists write in the letter.

The letter further states that the ‘call for proposals’ (CFP) under the scheme is drafted unscientifically from start to finish. “The document is full of statements prefaced by ‘it is believed’. Science cannot presume the validity of beliefs, however commonly held. Validity has to be put to test, which is absent in the CFP,” according to the letter of appeal.

For a fact, Chakrapani Maharaj, President of Hindu Mahasabha had recently told media that cow urine and cow dung can be used to treat coronavirus.

Also, products made from cow urine and cow dung manufactured at a gaushala in Bithoor in Kanpur were sold at Magh Mela in Prayagraj.

From soaps to incense to toothpaste and eye drops, a lot of products were on sale.

Last year, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balakrishna distributed about 800 cows among the poor local people of Chirang in Patanjali Yogapeeth and Goshala of Chirang.

Talking to media persons, Baba Ramdev said that through this activity Patanjali was trying to form a renaissance in the field of milk production of Assam. “These are Indian cows brought from several parts of India. Actually, our people are using Jersey and other foreign species of cows due to which quality of milk has become poor. But these Indian species of cows will give quality milk along with quantity. These cows can give 8 to 15 litres of milk every day. I think local poor people will get benefit from this,” Ramdev said.

Also Read: Native Cows Will Match Foreign Breeds In 5 Years’: Giriraj Singh

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