Granted, IANAHindu and I’ve never been to India, but what are the laws regarding those cows that walk around obstructing traffic and eating out of stalls?
Tourists compare notes, FWIW.
Duck Duck Goose - If foreign tourists keep asking the guides, whats the penalty for killing a cow, over and over, they’ll surely make up an answer. So there you go.
Cows are sacred to hindus is a stereotype. Ofcourse Cows have a religous significance to most hindus, but to go to the extent that you cannot kill a cow in India is not true. Infact, Christians and Muslims in India are allowed to slaughter cows for beef.
Now, your location in India will determine the attitude, the local masses, have towards the cow. India varies in language, culture, dresses, food, etc. from state to state. You don’t see cows all over the place in India, but its more prevalent in small cities (A small city in India has quite a population).
If you kill a cow by accident, just pay the person the cow belongs to its value. If you are caught in a mob, call the police immediately. I have never heard anyone being killed by a mob for killing a cow accidently.
If you want to slaughter a cow for whatever reason, you are advised to contact a Christian or Muslim abbatoir. Under Indian Law, it is illegal to sell any meat products without an inspection with a food inspector. So, the best way to go about this would be to contact the food inspector.
To hindus all cows are considered religious so there are no special sacred cows. But there are some Bulls which are branded with the Trident symbol and let free to go and considered a messenger from Shiva. Shiva is weird, his vehicle is a Bull :D.
Now why do people let their cows go free all over the place ? Thats partly because the owner is pretty much sure no one will harm the cow. But its not tolerated in many parts of India, and Cows roaming free are confiscated and the owner will have to pay a fine to get them back.
If you are asking about hunting a “Blue Cow” (A big deer like animal almost looks like a cow and called Neel Guy), its illegal to hunt in India in any forest.
The Blue Cow, or nilgai, is not really deer-like but is an antelope. The link mentions that it is endangered as a result of poaching but says nothing about the religion of the poachers.
Most all of the cows you see on the telly wandering around the cities of India belong to someone. They really don’t eat much that is edible by humans, and their droppings, when dried, are an important source of fuel for cooking fires. I do not know if this still holds treu, but milk sales were made by bringing the animal to the house. This way the purchaser would be assured that the milk had not been adulterated.
Occasionally a family will arrange to have their cow taken into custody, as the grqazing on the police station’s paddock is better than what is available on the streets, and if the cow is sick the police will have a vet look at it. The family will then pay the fine for having their cow wandering loose and bring home a healthier animal.
Read some of Gandhi to learn just how well cows were taken care of fifty years ago. The practices do not jibe with our notions of how to treat a sacred animal.
Sorry, that was all I could find on Google, just tourist diaries. I’ll be interested to see if anybody else can come up with an actual cite for the laws and the penalty involved for killing a sacred cow in India.
There’s never a blue-eyed white Google around when you need one…
I doubt very much you will find any laws on the books that set penalties for killing “sacred cows.” There is no such category of cow in India. Many (most) Hindus consider all cows to be sacred to some extent or other.
As others have said, there is no blanket ban on slaughtering cows for food; it just has to be done in an approved manner.
If you kill a cow on the street, it is likely you are damaging some person’s property. that’s where any penalties are likely to come in.
Thats like saying singing the wrong song can get you death penalty in the UK OR losing control of your car could get you death penalty in the US.
Isolated mob incidents do not prove the civil law.
Continuing on with that sentence:
If there is no phone available in the middle of said mob, please ask the mob if a cellular phone is available for you to borrow. If the mob does not have a cellular telephone available, politely ask mob to move to a telephone both. If a telephone both is not nearby, politely ask mob to take you to the police station where you can request assistance against the mob.