Dozens of Cow skeleton found from the forests in Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh

Case ID : 152de88 | Location : Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 16 January, 2025
Case ID : 152de88
location Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India
date 16 January, 2025
Dozens of Cow skeleton found from the forests in Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh
Undecided cases
Cow smuggling and/or slaughtering

Case Summary

In Himachal Pradesh's Dharmashala, skeletons of dozens of cows were found in the forest behind Dharamshala's Tapovan Vidhan Sabha Bhawan. This incident was brought to light by Dharamshala's Kranti Sanstha, which worked for wildlife conservation and cow protection. The president of the organization, Neeraj Mahajan, put the administration and society in the dock after he saw the skeletons of dozens of cows spread in the forest. He said, "This is not the case of any other country, but of Devbhoomi Himachal Pradesh. Here, where cow is worshipped as a mother, it is surprising that the condition of cows in the forests is like this." According to Neeraj Mahajan, cow slaughter was being done on a large scale in this forest. Cows were killed and their meat was taken out, their skin were removed, and the skeletons were left for wild dogs. All this happened in the forest behind the Tapovan Vidhan Sabha Bhawan, where 68 MLAs, ministers, police, and CRPF personnel were present and nobody got a hint of this and further said that such incidents happened in the jungles behind the leaders who talked about protecting cows in the assembly. He raised the question on the government and criticised it for its failure to protect cows.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The cow is considered sacred in the Hindu religion. Often, cows are slaughtered by non-Hindu perpetrators as a mark of insult to the Hindu faith. There have been several documented cases throughout history where cow slaughter is used as a method to insult the Hindu faith, convert Hindus (by force-feeding beef) and desecrate temples. In all cases of cow slaughter, there is a suspicion of religious animosity against Hindus working as a motivating factor, however, in the absence of any concrete indication, this case is being categorised as 'undecided'. If more details emerge, it would be added to the hate crime database.

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Perpetrators Details

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Unknown

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