NDRI supervisor booked for using banned oxytocin hormone
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service
Karnal, April 30
The police booked a supervisor and an in charge cattle yard, NDRI Karnal for using oxytocin injections on cattle.
The supervisor and the in charge were booked on the complaint of chairman of the Haryana People For Animals, Naresh Kadian. He complained to the police on March 1 but it took two months to registered a case.
The FIR was lodged under Sections 11 (C), 12 and 31 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960 on April 27 at Civil Lines Police Station after the investigation of the matter.
Talking to The Tribune Mr Kadian, also Union Government’s nominee for the NDRI under the Committee for Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) said he had recorded the visuals of using oxytocin hormone injection on cattles at the NDRI on March 1.
The Haryana PFA chairman handed over the complaint along with the CD to SP Sibash Kaviraj on that day, he added.
The NDRI, on 4,500 hectares, was set up almost 50 years ago as a research and production centre.
Use of oxytocin was restricted after it was discovered that growing number of farmers were injecting it daily. The Animal Welfare Board set up following an Act of Parliament in 1962 has been trying to educate farmers against it.
It may be difficult to convince farmers when some of the staff at the government dairy were flouting these guidelines and rules, said Mr Kadian.
The PCA Act of 1960 has made indiscriminate use of oxytocin, a punishable offence. The Act says: “If anyone injects a milch animal with any substance to improve lactation, which is injurious to the health of the animal, he shall be fined Rs 1,000 or jailed up to two years or both. The animal shall also be confiscated by the government.”
It’s not just animals who pay the price of the hormone injection. People drinking its milk are also at risk. “Unfortunately people who take this milk do not know that the milk has oxytocin as it is not labelled. If they consume this milk then there can be problems of neo-natal jaundice, eyesight, gastric problems. It can also lead to early puberty,” said an expert.
Most people outside or inside the institute may not know it. Every day, hundreds of people come to the dairy outlet and buy milk, cheese and other products.
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