It’s 12pm on a weekday, and the lane in the city’s Tangra neighbourhood facing the sole bovine slaughterhouse in Kolkata is empty.
asserted
lane → ’ → Kolkata
Run by the city’s municipal corporation, the colonial-era building in the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal looks like a fortress, with its giant iron gates locked from the inside.
asserted
gates → Run → inside
A peek through a gap between the gates reveals schoolboys running around and playing in the vast empty campus.
asserted
schoolboys → reveal → campus
“Those boys scale the walls and enter the slaughterhouse ever since it got shut down in May,” says Mehmood Alam, manager of a roadside eatery opposite the facility that mostly caters to daily wage labourers, as well as taxi and autorickshaw drivers.
uncertain
that → scale → labourers
He is still getting used to the desolation, Alam says.
asserted
Alam → get → desolation
“I don’t think this government will let this reopen any time soon.”
asserted
this → think → ?
On May 13, the West Bengal government issued a notice on bovine slaughter in the state, only four days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was declared the winner in the state legislature elections that saw the end of the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.
uncertain
that → issue → party
The document mentions strict compliance with the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950, stating that cows, bulls, bullocks, calves and specified buffaloes cannot be slaughtered without a certificate declaring the animal fit for slaughter.
asserted
animal → mention → slaughter
Such a certificate can be issued only if the animal is more than 14 years old, unfit for work or breeding, or has become permanently incapacitated because of age, injury, deformity, or an incurable disease.
asserted
animal → issue → age
The notice also states that certified animals may be slaughtered only in a municipal or locally designated slaughterhouse and prohibits slaughter in open public places.
uncertain
animals → state → places
Sales down, beef stew gone
The notification was issued just as Eid approached in May, and the impact was immediate, with restaurants and markets across the city and state reporting an acute shortage of beef.
uncertain
restaurants → go → beef
But the effects have outlasted Eid.
asserted
effects → outlast → Eid
More than three months later, beef remains in short supply in a state where the meat was widely relished.
asserted
meat → remain → state
That is because the certificate that traders and suppliers need to show, establishing that a specific animal meets the conditions for slaughter, is not the only bottleneck holding up beef trade in Kolkata.
asserted
animal → need → Kolkata
All meat suppliers also need licences authorising them to practise their trade.
asserted
suppliers → need → trade
And the renewal of these licences has been in limbo since the dissolution of the city’s municipal corporation in June, after Firhad Hakim resigned as mayor.
asserted
Hakim → resign → mayor
Kolkata’s next civic elections are scheduled for December.
asserted
elections → schedule → December
Alam’s friend Mushtaq, sitting next to him, is among the affected meat traders.
asserted
friend → sit → traders
He laughs cynically and says none of the six generations before him, all natives of Kolkata who made a living by supplying beef, had to suffer this fate – not under any of the past governments.
asserted
who → laugh → governments
“It [the renewal of licence] was halted because of the elections, but they’ve not said anything to us about when they will be renewed.
asserted
they → halt → us
I haven’t made a single penny for more than three months now,” says Mushtaq.
asserted
Mushtaq → make → months
There’s a giant wok of beef bhuna cooking near the entrance of the eatery, and in a smaller one right outside it, pieces of fish rest in a bubbling curry.
asserted
pieces → ’ → curry
During “better” days, both woks would have beef cooking.
asserted
woks → have → cooking
“We only sell the bhuna now,” he says.
asserted
he → sell → bhuna
“Earlier, we’d make a chaap, a stew, but for those, you need better quality beef, not the kind you have been getting in these last few months.”
asserted
you → make → months
Prices, however, have risen as supply has dried out.
asserted
supply → rise → ?
A plate of bhuna now sells for 120 rupees ($1.25), up from 100 rupees ($1.04) before the restrictions came into effect, while buying 1kg (2.2lb) in Kolkata costs anywhere between 350 and 500 rupees ($3.66-$5.22), as opposed to the 200-250 rupee range before May.
uncertain
buying → sell → May
“But sales have gone down by a good 50 percent,” says Alam.
asserted
Alam → go → percent
That’s because he doesn’t have as much beef to sell and he cannot trust the quality as much as he used to – and because many customers are now scared of being seen eating beef in public, under a BJP government, he suggests.
uncertain
he → ’ → government
He says he misses a group of young men – mostly Hindus – who would visit his establishment regularly for a plate of beef stew.
asserted
who → say → stew
“And we’ve almost entirely stopped having beef at home, too,” his voice dips further.
asserted
voice → stop → home
We’re just having vegetables and cheap fish now.
asserted
We → have → vegetables
We can’t afford mutton.”
asserted
We → afford → mutton
West Bengal has historically been among India’s major beef-consuming states.
asserted
Bengal → consume → states
According to government data, 10.4 percent of rural households and 7.9 percent of urban homes in the state reported consuming beef or buffalo meat.
uncertain
percent → accord → beef
In an Indian context, where the cow is held sacred by many Hindus, that’s among the highest beef consumption rates in the country – alongside the neighbouring state of Assam and Kerala in the south.
asserted
that → hold → south
Among Muslims in West Bengal, two-thirds consume beef, according to government data.
uncertain
thirds → consume → data
Christians, sections of Dalit communities, and some Indigenous communities in West Bengal also eat beef as part of their regular diets.
asserted
Christians → eat → diets
The law laying down conditions that an animal must meet before it can be slaughtered is not new, but its enforcement has become stringent only now after the BJP came to power in the state.
asserted
BJP → lay → state
Officially, the Tangra slaughterhouse is not shut, either.
asserted
slaughterhouse → shut → ?
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
