I may be an amateur blogger but I have blogged on this before. Pharmaceutical companies from US and Europe have patented what was/is originally traditional Indian home remedy/Ayurvedic medicine robbing us of our intellectual rights and entitlements. They have patented our bovine genes, native seeds, even part of Yoga (!) (and this is just the tip of the iceberg) to such an extent that in a very few years, we won’t have natural reproduction of anything in India. From foodgrains to animal breeding, US corporates will have to be paid royalty as they will hold back the poison seeds that killed the native flora. and the semen for our cattle. This is happening already right across the world and mostly the third world nations in Africa and Asia are since paying a heavy price for what is originally and truly ours. Biggest theft of the century. Recently I was visiting Arni, some 150 km from Chennai. My (regular) cabbie who drove me down, hails from Madurai. One look at the cattle grazing in the agricultural lands, he said the cows were IVF product and from the semen imported from US companies for a price . I was shocked. Such a layman he is, and not even a matriculate. But coming from a rural background, he knew these things growing up with farm animals and forestry, having worked as a farm hand engaging in cultivation before he left for the city in search of a job. He said the ‘Jallikattu’ (bull racing) was not just about reinforcing our traditional practices but about saving the indigenous bulls of India. As i have stated before in my previous blog posts, only the Asian cows can produce the brain stimulating A2 milk that is patented by America now! How is this. Now all efforts are on to deny Asia the A2 gene of cattle itself. You can sadly see the bottled A2 imported milk from US being sold even in Indian groceries! I have never supported foreign NGOs like the UNICEF or CRY or PETA or GREENPEACE for this reason. No.1 International frauds who steal from poorest of poor nations without an ounce of ethics or morality. Nothing is here in India from America without an agenda. To save our native flora and fauna, the battles we have to fight! South America is an easy scapegoat. We saw the recent fires in the Amazon. For whose benefit.
I am linking a few more of my own clumsy write-ups (!) on Biopiracy of India’s intellectual/native properties by MNCs.
https://vijiravindran.com/2020/02/14/dharma-in-the-times-of-corona-virus/
https://vijiravindran.com/2017/01/21/wto-and-india-rethinking-indias-food-security/
The second link details the Karuvelam tree, an invasive species NOT native to India running dry the Tamil Nadu ground water table. My driver told me, some vested interests have obtained a ‘stay order’ in court stopping the removal and eventual eradication of Karuvelam from Tamil soil. I was beginning to see less of Karuvelam but the parasite species is back now in last one or two years with a vengeance.
Most north Indians could not relate to Jallikattu protests in Tamil Nadu. The south still has saved hundreds of indigenous cattle and canine species, breeding them exclusively until today. Even at Isha Yoga in Coimbatore, for instance, they breed native pedigree bull and cow species without gene contamination. If PETA is allowed to have their way in India and if Jallikattu is to be stopped in Tamil Nadu, then there will be no reason to breed the native bulls and cows that are economically not viable. The Jallikattu is the greatest incentive for rural farmers to breed native bulls that are going extinct one by one. Today, natural breeding is very negligible in India where it concerns the cattle. Mostly commercialized artificial insemination. However, the exotic native breeds were excluded until now from the list. Looks like, not any more:
The following link highlights the importance of Jallikattu in preserving the indigenous bovine breed:
This is what the Jersey and Holstein are about to destroy once and for all:
https://www.biodiversityofindia.org/index.php?title=Native_cow_varieties_of_India
Difference between Indian and western bovine breeds:
Hindu temples play a huge role in the upkeep of pure cow breeds in ‘goshalas’ (cow sheds) within the temple precincts. Why cow dung and cow urine. This is why. Don’t be shocked, even the cow dung and cow urine revered by Hindus who were mocked for their belief systems are now patented by America for their medicinal benefits! Not that this is new to America. They have stolen strains of our turmeric, neem, basmati etc., that we did not bother to patent because we believed, it is ours, been ours traditionally for millennia. Government of India woke up only when an attempt was made to patent the ‘Surya Namaskar’ in Yoga.
“Goshalas’ are integral part of most ancient Hindu temples. However, the recent ones may not have them for lack of space.
The need for saving native seeds similarly:
I wish, anyone who browses through this post reads up every link. My small contribution to India in my own way.
The native canine breeds of India at a glance:
https://www.dogspot.in/9-indian-dog-breeds-never-knew-about/
We had what is called ‘panneer rose’ (panneer is rose water in Tamil) in our house until my teens. The yield was like some 20 flowers a day from the plant that was potted in a big rusted tin. The only natural manure we used then was tea or coffee powder after usage. Friends used to get us egg shells to fertilize soil. Our maid used to get fresh cow dung whenever possible. This rose used to be pale rose in colour, smaller in size. Amazingly the scent of the Panneer rose still lingers in my memory. Now it is no more to be seen in entire India, having been outbred by hybrid rose cultivation. I have never smelled that panneer rose scent ever again either. Nearly close, but never the same. Similarly even if you take the original reddish maroon hibiscus, it has become a rarity with more of mixed colours available in the nurseries. May be the originals are available if you search long and wide. Rare lucky instances. Same fate for what we used to call the original ‘December’ flower and Samanthi (chrysanthemum). The original white and yellow Samanthi strains we had at home still stay fresh in my memory. What I get for Puja at home today is the foreign variety Samanthi that is richer in colour and somewhat denser. That somehow dilutes something precious about the original Samanthi i have grown up with. Original native Indian samanthi used to be hardly like this. Not so rich or alluring. But the aromatic scent of the Samanthi was the game changer. Lightly moving in breeze with an elusive scent, pale in colour, the original Samanthi used to look delicate and sweet. As someone coming from a community that relates to different native flowers in daily life – from wearing flowers in hair everyday to school, college, work to adorning our home and pooja (worship) and temples and wedding halls and celebration parties and grooms and guests with flowers, I can vouch for how much even the flowers of India have altered in last twenty or so years. The native pedigree breeds have vanished almost completely from the scene which is shocking. To what extent the hybrids have done the damage will be next to impossible to gauge. We just no more live in the same India that was our ancestors, that kind of makes me sad. I am sure, the good old flower cultivators of Tamil Nadu/India will agree with me.
I don’t deny, our own greed and demand for more milk, more of food grains and even flowers may be driving our native exotic species to extinction, as we create an atmosphere where hybrid breeding with foreign species becomes inevitable to keep the supply chain moving.
How many of us can give up Chai for instance. I just gave up coffee although for a different reason. Now two months successfully without my passionate coffee. I became one less person harming nature and forcing more forest land into cultivation for coffee. How many of us can give up milk altogether.
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