India’s cattle economy is marred by a profound contradiction. The regime that invokes the cow as a sacred symbol and fails to curb vigilante attacks on those who trade in cattle also presides over one of the world’s largest bovine meat export industries, earning billions from exports. It claims to protect rural India but destabilises the economic chain that links farmers, traders, tanneries, transporters and leather workers. Most recently, that contradiction played out sharply in West Bengal ahead of Eid al-Adha.

Soon after the installation of the new chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, Bengal’s BJP government tightened regulations, effectively restricting the slaughter of cattle below 14 years of age unless certified unfit for breeding or work. The Calcutta High Court declined to stay the order, observing that cow sacrifice is not an essential part of Eid rituals.

Amid fears of harassment, seizures and communal targeting, reports from Bengal’s cattle markets suggest that many Muslim cattle traders and buyers have become overly cautious. Not only are they dissuading cattle breeders from selling their livestock for slaughter, they are turning them down.

Hindu livestock farmers have reportedly complained that weak demand is hurting prices and disrupting rural economies. In some cattle markets in Bengal, buyers are simply not turning up. Having invested money in rearing cows for Eid, many farmers fear ending up in debt. In an economy built on interdependence between Hindu farmers and Muslim cattle traders, fear of retribution from vigilante groups seems to have travelled quickly.

Meanwhile, the meat export business has been thriving.

The billion-dollar contradiction

India officially prohibits the export of cow meat. But buffalo meat — marketed globally as ‘carabeef’ — is one of India’s largest agricultural export sectors.

According to the APEDA animal products export database, India exported more than 1.25 million metric tonnes of buffalo meat in 2024-25 alone, worth over $4 billion, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of all animal product exports. The biggest buyers include Vietnam, Egypt, Malaysia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Also Read: If the cow is sacred, should the law say so?

As per a recent Lok Sabha reply, India has 94 APEDA-registered export-grade slaughterhouses spread across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab.

Vigilantism, however, rarely distinguishes between cows and buffaloes, legal exports and illegal smuggling. Muslims........

© National Herald