New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led central government has given a fresh push to research on indigenous cows, with its inter-ministerial funding programme ‘Scientific Utilization through Research Augmentation Prime Products from Indigenous Cows’ (SUTRA-PIC India).
The scheme will carry out research and development work, technology development linked to capacity building at local level covering five thematic areas that focus on cows and their health, medicine, food nutrition and agricultural applications apart from investigating the uniqueness of “desi” cows and their products.
This scheme has been widely condemned by scientists across the country.
In an appeal to K Vijayaraghavan, principal scientific adviser to the government, and Ashutosh Sharma, secretary in the Department of Science & Technology, the scientists urged them to withdraw this call for proposals at once.
“We request you to reformulate the same proposal to encourage open inquiry, by explicitly including wording to the effect of ‘the investigators are also expected to cross-check if the claimed effects are specific to indigenous breeds of cows or the same effects can be seen in other cow breeds or other bovine species or other mammals’,” said their statement. “We hope you will stand up for the integrity of scientific research and not disappoint fellow scientists.”
“The present proposal is a biased attempt to push the narrative of the ‘special status of Indian cows’ by funding research that feeds into confirmation bias,” they said. “As a counter to such efforts, we appeal to all scientific community to use the occasion of the coming National Science Day (February 28) to educate the public about two things.”
First, why it may be unreasonable to expect miracles from products derived from indigenous cows, they said, adding one can talk about all the claimed effects in this proposal as well as the other claimed effects that have made headlines over the past few years.
Second, “those of us who work in physics/mathematics/statistics, can use this occasion to educate masses about confirmation bias and about difference between correlation and causation”, they added.
The programme in five categories
The details of the programme available on the website give five broad themes: Under the “Uniqueness of Indigenous Cows”, it said, “The scientific studies performed by a few investigators prove some special characteristics of desi cows, many other properties of these cows need detailed scientific investigations. Studies on metagenomic and proteogenomic analysis of Indian cows need detailed scientific investigations.”
The scheme highlights that “one of the major aims under this theme is the systematic scientific investigation of uniqueness of pure Indigenous Indian cows”.
On the second theme, “Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Medicine and Health”, the programme advocates “cowpathy”, a treatment based on products obtained from indigenous cows as used in Ayurveda.
“Though many ‘vaidyas’ and practitioners are using prime products from indigenous cows for various treatments, there is not much scientific studies and research on the same. Cow urine and its distillate is being used by ayurveda practitioners throughout the country,” it said.
It has called for “research proposals under this theme, which should undertake detailed scientific investigation of chemical profiling, identification of bioactive principle responsible for enhancing activity of antibiotics and anticancer drugs, and other medicinal properties of prime products from indigenous cow from modern perspective”.
The third theme is based on “Prime products from Indigenous Cows for Agricultural Applications”.
“The project proposals to be submitted under this theme should aim to perform scientific investigations of role of prime products from indigenous cows on plant growth, soil health and providing immunity in plant system, their application as organic manure and bio-pesticide in agriculture, among others uses,” said the release on the programme.
Under the fourth category “Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Food and Nutrition”, the release said the proposals under this theme “should aim to perform scientific research on complete characterization of milk and milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows, scientific research on nutritional and therapeutic properties of curd and ghee prepared from indigenous breeds of cows by traditional methods; development of standards for traditionally processed dairy products of Indian origin cow; and identification of bio/chemical markers to authenticate the quality of ghrita”.
The last category “Prime-products from indigenous cows-based utility items” said, “The proposal under this theme should be framed with aims to standardize effective, economic and eco-friendly preparations of utility products from the prime components of indigenous cows.”
RSS dream project
The RSS’s Gau Sewacell members in 2018 had visited various temples and mutts to spread awareness on the benefits of cow urine and cow dung. It focussed on ‘Rog Mukt Bharat’ (disease-free India) and printed a handbook, ‘Srishti ki Sangrakshak Bharatiya Gai’ (Indian cow – The protector of nature), to give an impetus to its campaign.
Nagpur-based ‘Gau Anusansadan Kendra’ has also been focusing on conducting research work to prove the benefits of cows.
In 2017, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar claimed that 90% of the world’s population depends on cow milk and that is why it is called the mother of humanity. “Cow keeps poisonous things to itself and gives milk and gobar (cow dung),” he had said.
The new project is in line with the BJP’s parent body's vision and will be carried on with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology through various departments and research councils.
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