Mumbai: The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on Monday signed a bill banning cow slaughter in Maharashtra that had been pending for almost nineteen years. Now, slaughter of cows, bulls, bullocks and calves is completely banned in Maharashtra under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (amendment) Act (MAPA), 1995.

The state assembly had passed the bill during the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in 1995. Under the amended act, the crime of slaughtering the animals covered under the ban will be non-bailable and the punishment will be five years in prison, upped from the earlier six months. The fine, too, has been hiked to Rs 10,000 from the current Rs 1,000.

Maharashtra had always banned the slaughter of cows but allowed the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and water buffalo. The new act will ban the slaughter of all cattle with the exception of water buffaloes.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed happiness over the bill, "Thanks a lot honourable President Sir for the assent on Maharashtra Animal Preservation Bill. Our dream of ban on cow-slaughter becomes reality now," Fadnavis posted on Twitter.


The ban has also sparked a debate as opponents are claiming it to be a political move. During his LokSabha campaign Narendra Modi had attack the United Progressive Alliance government, he wrote on his blog, “It saddens me that present UPA Government led by Congress is promoting slaughtering of cows and exporting beef to bring ‘Pink Revolution’”. 

Ironically India is the second largest exporter of beef after Brazil in the world.