This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

Not Milk, Cow Urine Is Apparently Selling Like Hot Cakes In India

Cow urine = Liquid gold.
Attendant Susheela Kumari collects urine at a cow shelter where urine is processed in Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Friday, June 17, 2016. Urine from India's indigenous Bos indicus cows, which are considered sacred by Hindus, is a hot commodity. That's thanks in large part to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who's introduced programs over the past two years to protect the milk-producing animals and support industries derived from their waste. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Attendant Susheela Kumari collects urine at a cow shelter where urine is processed in Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Friday, June 17, 2016. Urine from India's indigenous Bos indicus cows, which are considered sacred by Hindus, is a hot commodity. That's thanks in large part to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who's introduced programs over the past two years to protect the milk-producing animals and support industries derived from their waste. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Last month, in a breakthrough, researchers at Junagadh Agricultural University (JAU) in Gujarat found gold particles in the urine of some cows from the Gir region of the state.

Now, a report by Bloomberg says that cow urine is selling like hot cakes in India for reasons that do not include people trying to find gold particles in it.

According to the report, cow urine has become a priced possession everywhere, thanks to the Narendra Modi government and his government's programs over the past two years to protect the animal, which includes a ban on beef slaughter.

"Around 30 remedies can be prepared at home with cow urine," Sunil Mansinghka, chief coordinator at Go-Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra, a cow-focused research organization in Nagpur told Bloomberg.

Many believe that cow urine can treat ailments too.

K. Shankar Rao, director of the National Institute of Ayurveda, had told The Wire that many ayurvedic texts talk about treatment of ailments from eight types of urine: cow, buffalo, goat, camel, sheep, donkey, horse and human.

Among them, cow urine is considered to be the 'best', according to Rao.

The Bloomberg report also notes that the bestselling product of Baba Ramdev's Patanjali is also made of cow urine. It's a cow urine-based floor-cleaner.

Virendar Kumar Jain, founder of Jain's Cow Urine Therapy Health Clinic. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Virendar Kumar Jain, founder of Jain's Cow Urine Therapy Health Clinic. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"We prepare 20 tons of Gaunyle (made of cow urine) a day and still can't meet demand," managing director Acharya Balkrishna told Bloomberg.

Dr. Virendra Kumar Jain, who owns a cow-urine therapy clinic in Indore, holds a patent on formulating a herbal medicine using cow urine.

Over the past two decades, Jain's center has administered urine-derived medicines to 1.2 million patients even for treatment of cancer.

Also See:

Striking Portraits Of Cows

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.