Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 July 2018 | Page 17

B OVINE TOURIS M
Care for
a Cow
Safari?
How a cow shelter in Jaipur
plans to attract tourists
SAJITH KUMAR
by Salik Ahmad in Jaipur
dina­tor at the Hingonia cow shelter in safari is being pitched as ‘adventurous
Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The and sportive’. Tourists would be driven
HE idyll in his head has been NGO, which according to its website through the rugged terrain in open jeeps,
painted with great clarity and provides lunch to 1.7 million school and the sight of bulls fighting and shov-
definite brushstrokes. There children in India, took over the manage- ing is likely to make the expedition ent­
will be exactly 300 cows, 10 ment of the cow shelter, housing around ertaining. They’ll also see bulls driving
each of 30 indigenous breeds. 22,000 cows, from the Jaipur Municipal mills and electricity generators.
The shelter management says cow
Ten bullock carts will ferry Corporation after 500-odd bovines died
tourists through the 2-km safari in 2016 when heavy rains turned the saf­ari is a unique concept that is being
implemented in the country for the
track. Along the route would be shelter into a swamp.
wooden boards, inscribed with infor- “The idea is to educate people about first time. There has been no market
mation about various breeds. The indigenous breeds and raise awareness survey regarding the idea, but they
tourists will get down to pet, clean about cow protection,” says Das. “We ­believe it’s going to be successful. “Oh
and feed the cows during the two-to- have the famous Nagauri breed. The definitely! People are going to come. I
three-hour excursion. There will be strength and stamina of its oxen is know that based on personal expe­
restaurants serving ‘butter, corian- proverbial. The Gir cow is known for rience,” says Das.
The NGO is spending about Rs 40
der chutney and chapatis’, cooked on its milk yield. We’ll procure cows of
different indigenous breeds from lakh to develop the safaris, which will
‘mitti ka tawa’ (mud pan) over ‘lakdi ­
be free. Tourists will be charged for
ka chulha’ (wood stove). For over- across the country.”
night tourists, there will be dung-­ Das believes the cow is a “special hiring the tree huts. Besides locally
coated bamboo huts on trees, ideal to ­animal” that is useful alive as well as made milk products, flour and edible
‘keep them cool in summers and after death—its body parts have uses in oils produced by ox-driven mechan­
various ­industries. “Cow’s milk conta­ isms will also be on sale for tourists.
warm in winters’.
Tourism veterans, however, scoff at
The management of the 500-acre ins many micronutrients,” he says. “We
shelter has decided to turn 22 acres survive on mother’s milk for 18 or 19 the idea of cow safari. “It’s quite whim-
into a forest-like enclosure for a cow months, but we have cow’s milk the rest sical and not saleable at all,” said Gour
safari, which would be thrown open to of our life. No wonder we regard it as Kanjilal, executive director of the
Indian Association of Tour Operators.
tourists by mid-September. Temp­ora­ our mother.”
It’s not just about cows. “People want to go for wildlife safaris.
rily suspend the absurd­
A bull safari is almost Who’d want to go for a cow safari? As for
ity—this ‘safari’, after all,
ready and will begin ope­ foreign tourists, he says, they’ll come
is for an animal that is
rations around the same for the beaches of Goa, the great
plentifully ubiquitous— The NGO,
time as the cow safari. Himalayas, the holy ghats of Varanasi,
and one could actually Akshaya Patra,
Spread over 30 acres the backwaters of Kerala, but won’t take
fall for the dream Radha is spending
within the shelter prem- 10-hour flights to come and see cows.
Priya Das will soon be around Rs 40
ises, it will host 10,000 Gimmicks don’t work in tourism.”
offering people.
lakh to develop bulls. Unlike the cow saf­ But those are the risks you must be
Das works with the
ari, which is meant to be willing to take, if you are opening your
Aks haya Patra Found­
a­ the cow and
an educative one, the bull ideas of idyll to the world. O
tion as programme coor­ bull safaris.
T
16 July 2018 OUTLOOK 17