Cow's Milk in India ...

I have grown up in India, unknowingly imbibing its culture, without realising how deep it was getting into me. One of the several Indian Hindu's values I imbibed is 'गाय हमारी माता है' and 'गऊ माता की जय' (Cow is our mother, and all glories to Mother Cow). Given that the cow is sacred to Hindus, and majority of Indians, approx 80%, are Hindus, it would be fair to assume that cow's milk is easily available in India.

Even though the cooperative run dairy has been branded as Mother Dairy, there is no Mother Cow's milk there. If you ask the counter staff, whose milk are you selling, he would say, it is all mixed. Mother Dairy's web site mentions about the cow's milk being available in a poly pack, but, when one goes to the Mother Dairy outlet and asks for cow's milk, the counter staff appear clueless and most helpless. Amul's web site mentions nothing about cow's milk. Both Mother Dairy's web site, and Amul's web site, do not mention which animal is the milk sourced from, is it a desi Indian cow, or jersey cow, or is it a buffalo, or a camel, nothing is mentioned. One may, however, assume that they are sourcing milk from buffaloes, but then, they ought to mention it, accurately. 
Paras Dairy's web site shows its ply packs with cow's picture on it, and on its main page it has the picture of cows grazing the fields. Does it mean that they are sourcing the milk from cows ? 
I will be calling Mother Dairy, Amul, and Paras, and post my telecon's results here.

For me, it is not enough to specify the Fat and SNF percentages, I want to know which animal has the milk been sourced from, and under what conditions. I also want to know whether the animals from whom the milk is sourced from, are being treated well or not, whether they have been fed any non-vegetarian diet, and whether they have been injected with any hormones/antibiotics/etc.


During my school days, it was easy to get cow's milk, an Indian cow's milk. One could go to a small 'tabela', where someone would have three four cows, he would milch the cow in front of you, and there you go. My mother tells me that her father had several cows at their home in what is now Pakistan. She has grown up, along with her sisters, drinking fresh milk everyday from the cows domesticated by her father. Such is the change, my mother had cows at their home, then, I was able to buy cow's milk from someone owning the cow, and now, there is no cow's milk, if it is there, it is very hard to come by. And, more surprising than this is that Indians do not care about it. I have talked to several persons, highlighting the fact that there is no cow's milk available in India. The sort of response I get is 'फिर क्या हो गया दूध तो दूध है' (so what, milk is mil), 'गाय के दूध के लिये तो बॉस घर में गाय पालनी पड़ेगी' (for cow's milk, boss, you will have to domesticate the cow at your home), with a casual smirk, grin, or 'what is this guy talking about' expression.

Stay tuned for result of my telecall with Mother Dairy, Amul, and Paras.