(BT): Gosaling’s bone of contention – a slaughterhouse

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*Gosaling’s bone of contention – a slaughterhouse*

 

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<http://kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News & new_topic=1>*Besides

hurting villagers’ religious sentiments, the abbatoir is accused of

contaminating the entire place, water source and all*

 

*3 April, 2009 - *Gosaling villagers in Tsirang just celebrated, what they

call, a peaceful month. With the month of March coinciding with the first

auspicious month in the Bhutanese calendar, farmers were spared from

witnessing the butchering of cattle at the slaughterhouse located in their

village.

 

With 70 percent of the village’s population Hindu with a deep regard for the

sacred cow, villagers say that the sight of cattle being taken to the

slaughterhouse was painful. “It hurts our sentiments as it is located in the

middle of a community where people worship cows,” said a resident, Tamang.

 

But it’s not just religious sensitivity that has farmers complaining about

the abbatoir. According to farmers, it was also the environment they had to

live and work in.

 

“It’s time to bear the foul smell again,” said a villager, calling it a

torture. “We’ve spent sleepless nights and had to miss meals at times as the

smell is too foul,” he said.

 

The one-storied abattoir of stone kills about 40 to 50 cattle every month.

It is located in the heart of the upper Gosaling within a five-acre land

belonging to the owner of the abattoir.

 

A 48-year-old father of four said that, although the cattle were slaughtered

on the owner’s land, dogs scattered the discarded parts and waste in the

village. “It defiles the whole community and we’re falling ill,” he said.

 

The source of the village’s water supply is located about 200 m away from

the slaughterhouse and residents accuse the place of contaminating their

drinking water. Sura Bir Alley, 62, whose mandarin orchard borders the

abbatoir, said that he had lost orange trees, as his orchard was filled with

skull, horns, tails and other carrion waste. “It’s becoming difficult to

hire hands to work in my orchard. They feel dirty and disturbed,” he said.

“My investment in the orchard will be wasted.”

 

Residents also said that the owner of the place of death had misused kidu

land by turning it into a slaughterhouse. “He should cultivate the kidu land

and slaughter somewhere else if he has the license for a slaughterhouse,”

said an angry neighbor.

 

Gosaling gup, K B Tamang, said that the gewog took the matter seriously

since it was affecting the water source and hurting the sentiments of the

people. “W discussed the matter in the dzongkhag yargye tshogdu (DYT)

thrice,” he said, adding that dzongkhag has now intervened.

 

Tsirang dzongda, Lhendu Wangchuk, said that the dzongkhag respected the

public sentiment. “The slaughterhouse lacked proper standard before but

lately it constructed proper drainage system and disposal pits,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, the dzongkhag’s livestock sector is in the process of identifying

a new location. “There is a site at Mithuntar, about 32 km away from Tsirang

proper, but we’ll have to finalise the process,” said the dzongkhag

livestock officer, Dorji Dukpa.

 

The slaughterhouse owner, Penjor, is not deterred. He said that he obtained

a permit to butcher animals when the livestock department introduced the

policy of reducing unproductive cattle. “I consulted the dzongkhag and gewog

before opening this slaughterhouse,” he said. “The then dzongkhag livestock

officer and gewog officials forced me to open the slaughterhouse before I

was even ready.”

 

Penjor said he did not contaminate the water and added that the water was

not supplied for people’s consumption but for an outreach clinic. There are

other settlements living nearby the source, he said, adding that he spent

about Nu 750,000 in constructing and renovating the abattoir. “I‘ll only

shift if they compensate my money,” he said.

 

Tsirang Lam Neten, Namgay Wangchuk, said that the dratshang tried to stop

the slaughterhouse but it clashed with the government’s policy to reduce

unproductive livestock. “I fully understand the agriculture ministry’s

policy and also that it will uplift poor farmers, but that’s a temporary

measure,” he said. He said that the dratshang is discouraging people from

buying meat for rituals.

 

*By Tashi Dema

t_dyel*

 

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