Suhail Dar
The Kashmir valley has seen a whooping entry of 27,305 animals from outside states during the first twenty days of the holy month of Ramadhan, officials said.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat Javed Ahmed, a supervisor of Animal Husbandry said that over 18,963 sheep and 8,342 goats have entered the Kashmir valley for consumption from other states of Jammu Kashmir.
He said that the import is expected to go up during the last ten days of Ramadhan.
A mutton dealer from Srinagar, however, said that the import does not give the exact figures of consumption. “There needs to be thorough work to check the actual amount of mutton consumed during a period of time. There are mutton sellers who have had existing stock for several months. There are others who will stock the current supply for future weeks,” he said
He said that the consumption may be much higher or lower than the number. “We have local breed too. This number does not tell much about the consumption in Kashmir,” Adil added.
He said that at an average a sheep or goat costs 10,000 rupees and going by that average the size of the imports has swelled to 27,30,50,000. “This is not an abnormal number in Kashmir for the month of Ramadhan,” Adil, who hails from Rainawari Srinagar said.