In the Kutch district of Gujarat, 65 cows, calves were killed on the night of Friday-Saturday (June 30-July 1). The incident took place in a cowshed in Rapper taluka.

Now in the post-mortem, it is revealed that the reason for the death of cows is due to cyanide poisoning. It was believed that cows died due to the flood, but officials now say that it has nothing to do with heavy rains last week. This is the second such incident of such a large number of cows' death in a year.

According to the report of the Indian Express, the incident took place at Gaushala (cowshed) of Shri Jivadaya Mandal (SJM), about 7 km from Ratra town. There was heavy rain on Saturday night. In the evening at around 7:30 the shepherds found that some cows are suddenly becoming unconscious.

SJM manager Rajendra Kothari said in an interaction with the Indian Express, "As soon as our people said that the cattle were getting unconscious, we sent the veterinarians to the spot and started treatment for about 80 cows and calves. Unfortunately we could save only 30, while 65 died."

SJM is a trust which runs three cowsheds in the Rapar, the institution manages about 8,000 cattles. On Thursday, Rapar had a rainfall of 7 inches, followed by rain for the next two days.

Veterinarians have made it clear that cows were not killed due to rain. Shaleesh Chowdhary, the official Veterinary Officer of Rapar, said, "It was evident from the postmortem of cows that its death were caused by the poison of cyanide which was found in green millet, it was fed to it on Saturday afternoon. The quantity of cyanide was high in the fodder and after that the drinking of cattle water proved to be fatal. However, these deaths do not have to be taken with rain."

According to Kothari, fodder for cattle comes from neighboring villages. He said, "We need about 10 trucks of fodder every day. On Saturday, all the cattles were given a green millet feed. But veterinary doctors told that it was dangerous to drink water after eating millet fodder. Therefore, the cows who drank water after eating millet, they were affected and 65 of them died."

In many areas of Kutch, Gujarat Government provides fodder at token rates. Mamlatdar chief Hamir Vaghela said in Rapar, "The feed distribution is also underway in Rapar. There is also grass depot in Fatehgarh. However, not all people buy grass from here."

This incident of Kutch has happened only a few days after the Gujarat government showed sensitivity to the cows. Recently, the BJP government has made provision of life imprisonment for the killing of cows by changing the Gujarat Animal Protection Act. Apart from this, the punishment has also been increased for the sale, storage and transportation of beef.

This is the second incident of the death of cows by poisonous fodder. In April last year, 24 cows and calves died due to eating poisonous fodder of maize in the cowshed of Narayan Sarovar village in western Kutch. After cutting maize from the field, there was not enough air which made nitrite poison in it.

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