Traders incur losses as sale of goats nosedives in Kashmir
Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 12
The market of goats in Amritsar has been hit badly during the present season following violence in Kashmir. A day before the Eid-ul-Zuha (Bakr-Eid), traders, middle men and brokers were seen whiling away time in Bakarmandi and cattle market in Vallah.
Traders at Bakarmandi, outside Lahori Gate, said they used to supply hundreds of truckload of goats to various parts of Kashmir before Eid-ul-Zuha every year. This year only a few buyers from Kashmir placed orders for goats and sheep, they added.
It is pertinent to mention here that a large number of traders from Rajasthan and Haryana come to sell their goats and sheep in Bakarmandi. Kashmiri traders come to buy animals from Amritsar as it is a well known mandi (market) of goats from the past two centuries. The sale of goats picks up before Eid-ul-Zuha.
Apart from ‘Kurbani’, the Muslim population celebrates the festival by cooking goat and sheep meat.
Hari Ram, a trader from Sri Ganganagar, said, “I came with 20 goats. I was expecting to sell each goat for at least Rs 15,000. But, due to disturbance in Kashmir only few traders came to buy animals. Now, I have sold my goats for Rs 5,000 each. There is no demand in cities of Punjab as sale of meat starts a few days before Diwali.”
“Kashmiri traders are also not sure whether they will be able to sell goats and sheep at their native place, besides at Srinagar or in other regions of the Valley. Transportation has been disrupted from the last two months as curfew has been imposed in several areas. Only five per cent animals were supplied during this season,” said a middleman at Bakarmandi.
Owais, a Kashmiri cloth merchant in the city said, “The economy of the state and financial condition of residents has been affected due to regular imposition of curfew in the Valley. How can people afford to buy meat on Eid, when they did not earn even a penny for the last two months. There is no doubt that sale of goats and sheep has come down drastically.”
“Due to less number of Muslim population in the city, we used to sell 200 to 300 goats in the local market on Eid. Kashmir is a major market for us. We have incurred heavy losses due to disturbance in the Valley,” said a local trader at Bakarmandi.
