Thousands of goats in northern Bihar have been drinking rum this winter to battle the bitter cold. Too afraid to lose their goats to the foggy chill in December and early January, many poor families gave the herbivores alcoholic drinks to keep them warm and alive.
In the poor northern districts of Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura, the novel practice of administering small pegs of rum, man’s perennial alcoholic favourite of winter, to pet goats caught the fancy of the owners of the animal and spread in late December, when the minimum temperatures slumped below 5 degree Celsius in most parts of Bihar.
The poor animal, often a dependable source of renewable wealth for many a poor family in Bihar, seems to have grown a fondness for the spirited liquid without displaying any hot behaviour. Rural families who used the questionable trick and are glad not to have lost any goat to the cold weather said the task was easy, only except making the quadruped drink the costly liquor from a tumbler or bowl without spilling a drop of it. “They (goats) certainly feel comfortable and become capable of withstanding the bone-shaking cold by just less than half a peg of rum each evening. This is how we kept our goats warm and alive at a time when even men and women fell to the winter chill,” said Bahuri Yadav, an owner of a dozen goats in Saharsa.
During Bihar’s Assembly polls last year, villagers in two constituencies in Saharsa district were unmoved by the ruling BJP’s manifesto promising free goats to BPL families and said they would vote for any candidate who promises to ensure government intervention to rid their villages from monkeys that routinely damage their crops.
While it remains to be scientifically probed what effect the administration of alcoholic drinks to goats would produce on their meat, a Saharsa-based veterinary doctor said the practice proved very useful for poor goat owners and cannot be harmful. “Such very small amounts of liquor given only in chilly winter cannot be bad either for the goat or its meat,” said Dr Gopinath Jha.
But what happens if the habituated goats demand liquor in summer and other seasons? That is one question goat-owners fear to hear, but have not started asking themselves yet.