Animal husbandry and environmental pollution

The India Pollution Control Board has categorised all industries based on a Pollution Index, which calculates the effect they have on water, air and land and the health of people. Red, Orange, Green and White.

Red category industries include slaughterhouses, hazardous chemical industries and firecracker factories. They are the most polluting. The Red and Orange Category Industries need to meet stringent minimum standards for operation and waste disposal. They get a Consent to Establish, as well as Consent to Operate, only after detailed inspections by the Pollution Control Board, and these are renewed constantly. Any violation of the Guidelines attracts heavy penalties as Environmental Compensation.

Each category below Red has less and less norms to follow, and their monitoring is easy – and in some cases almost absent. The Animal Husbandry department has no process of inspection and hardly any inspectors. In any case the inspectors don’t know what to look for, as they are mostly illiterate flatfeet who have never been asked to read any law, or given any forms to fill out. So, even if they go to a poultry/dairy farm they have no idea of what to do. They simply take their hafta and go away. The Animal Husbandry department’s mandate is simply to increase the number of animals, without any method to regulate the damage they do. A poultry or a dairy doesn’t need any consent to set up wherever they want. The dairy simply came under the Municipal Corporation Act, which has no power to regulate pollution by fining it under Environmental Compensation.

The result has been a large-scale pollution of our land and water by these two industries. The hens are kept in small cages one on top of the other and faeces from the top layer drips into all the layers below. These are called battery cages. The germ filled faeces in the battery cages become poisonous for both, bird and man, an environmental and health hazard for both people and the birds. In order to keep these birds alive in such intensive and filthy environs, the poultry farm owners regularly administer antibiotics. Dairies use antibiotics and hormones (the poultries alone use 70% of all the antibiotics in the country) illegally while water, and faeces run-off makes sure that all the lands and water around get huge doses of it.

Consequently, every human, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, becomes unresponsive to all medicine. Hormonal imbalances lead to cancer. Both industries create methane which creates a heat wave locally. Due to the filthy conditions of both, dairies and poultries, millions of flies are bred and these, and the smell of these establishments, make it difficult for anyone to live for miles around. There is no method of disposal of the dead bodies and these are simply thrown into nearby water bodies, or left in piles on common land. Basically, the Industrial Animal Rearing Sector got away with running unregulated filthy concentration camps, gravely compromising the health and safety of the animals, the workers employed there, and the people living in the neighbourhoods.

Despite every indicator that these industries are extremely harmful and should be in the category of Red or Orange, the Poultry Industry was classified as a Green Category Industry and Dairy Industry as Orange/Green depending on the size of the industry. Both Green and White categories get away with little or no regulation or monitoring. Earlier, the Central Pollution Control Board exempted poultry farms upto 100,000 birds from any regulation and even the ones where more than a 100,000 birds were crammed, were classified as a Green Industry.

Finally, someone had to challenge this. Gauri Maulekhi of People for Animals and advocate NG Jayasimha challenged this categorization in The National Green Tribunal. Gauri has worked for years on poultry issues and has found it one of the cruellest industries on earth. She is leading the fight to bring reforms into this breeding and slaughter industry. The petitioners contended that poultry farms and dairy farms, where animals and birds are crammed into tiny spaces for profit maximisation, actually have huge hidden costs in terms of environmental damage and public health impact. Unfortunately, there was no law in India till now to regulate these industrial establishments, which get away by misleadingly calling themselves ‘farms’.

In September 2020, the NGT ruled that all dairies have to be categorised Orange immediately, and poultries can no longer be under the Green Category. In January the NGT will decide whether the poultry industry has to be Orange or Red.

What does this mean?

It is now mandatory for all dairy and poultry establishments to obtain a Consent to Establish, and Consent to Operate, from the State Pollution Control Boards under The Environment Protection Act, 1986, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and The Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. Any place where more than 5,000 poultry birds or any number of cattle are kept for the industrial production of eggs, meat or milk, will have to follow minimum standards prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board, which now has to make the rules – for the first time!

A report from FAO says livestock production contributes to the world’s most pressing environmental problems – global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Such unsustainable animal husbandry practices violate The Environment Protection Act, 1986, Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

The Tribunal took into account research conducted by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, the most respected environmental research organization in India, which said “Poultry production is associated with a variety of environmental pollutants, including oxygen-demanding substances, ammonia, solids and, besides, poultry attracts flies, rodents, dogs and other pests that create local nuisance and carry diseases. Poor management of manure, litter and waste water etc. adversely affects the living in the vicinity. Odour is generated from fresh and decomposed waste products such as manures, carcasses, feathers and bedding litter. Furthermore, intensive poultry production may be responsible for greenhouse gasses, acidification and eutrophication.”

Besides being extremely harsh on the animals, the poultry and dairy establishments are hugely polluting. Pests, such as flies, ticks, lice, mites, maggots, are routinely attracted to poultry farms. An intense odour emanates from these farms which affects the entire neighbourhood and is an absolute nuisance. Hundreds of complaints poured in from residents, who stay in the vicinity of such farms, when the matter was being heard in Court. Dairy farms are the single biggest reason areas in Delhi to get flooded during the lightest of rains. The storm drains are clogged by the illegal dung disposal from 10 huge dairy colonies where buffaloes are housed in basements, first, second and third floors. These animals are treated like milk machines and tied with a two foot chain for their entire lives. Due to lack of sunlight and exercise, they develop fungal infections and their hides turn pink. They only get to walk a few steps – on the day that they are being taken for slaughter.

It is the duty of every citizen of India to contribute to both, preserving the environment and preventing abuse of animals. If there is a dairy or a poultry farm in your neighbourhood, please enquire if they have necessary permits. If not, write to the authorities and ensure that such establishments meet the minimum standards for solid and liquid waste disposal, bio waste disposal, density of animals, hygiene requirement in the facility. This will ensure that our groundwater, the air we breathe and the products we consume are not corrupted by contaminants, pesticides, antibiotics, and deadly pathogens. The relief to the animals that suffer in these concentration camps will be your gift to them. 

(To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org)