One thing that may astonish any new visitor to India is the sight of free-roaming cows. They go where they please. The holy cow, described by Mahatma Gandhi and others as the Mother of India, is considered sacred and protected from slaughter in most Indian states. But there is much more to wandering cows than their holy stature.
Nowhere is the sad direct consequence of plastic pollution more obvious than in the streets of large Indian cities where one can see cows ingesting plastic regularly while grazing on food scraps in garbage. Plastic can look like food to the cow and is intimately mixed with food waste. The plastic accumulates and accumulates in the cow’s four stomachs (yes, cows have four stomachs) until the digestive system can no longer function and the cow dies an excruciatingly painful death.
Recognizing the cow as an icon for all animals dying from plastic pollution, the dynamic South Indian Karuna Society for Animals and Nature has initiated a Plastic Cow Project to bring attention to the issue. They perform surgery on cows to remove plastic (sometimes over 50 kgs/110 lbs in a single cow), initiate public interest litigation to ban plastic bags, and conduct India-wide outreach, partly through an excellent 34-minute documentary entitled The Plastic Cow (watch it below).
The documentary also exposes how the number of cows in cities has grown because dairies release them into the streets and in garbage dumps when the cows can no longer produce milk. Many of them are then illicitly slaughtered for meat and leather……Read More