Slaughter ban to directly hit over 1 lakh people

KOZHIKODE: More than 1.25 lakh people are employed in slaughterhouses, engaged in slaughtering, processing and selling meat, according to a survey conducted by Department of Animal Husbandry in 2013, along with Department of Economics and Statistics.     The survey was conducted in a bid to act in tune with a Supreme Court order in 2012 on the need to upgrade and ensure cleanliness in slaughterhouses across the nation. According to the survey, the state has 15,680 slaughterhouses with 11,807 having no licence.

It is assumed that as many as eight people are associated with a slaughterhouse which means in total as many as 1,25,440 people are involved in the meat processing and trade across the state. Thousands of farmers rearing cattle will also be affected with the meat ban. On the consumer side, lakhs of them prefer beef in the state. Going by the data of the Animal Husbandry department prepared in 2011, a city like Kozhikode alone consume more than 20 tonnes of meat per day. On an average, 1,05,141 animals are slaughtered a year in Kozhikode alone, as per the survey which includes 67,633 buffaloes and 19,292 goats.