Gayal’s wild journey from the hills to cattle farms

The heavyweight hill cow Gayal has been cleverly lured into plainlands and commercially reared for over a decade for its high meat yield. 

Now, as Eid-ul-Azha approaches fast, the traders of Gayal are seeing an increasing demand for the wild bovine, whose meat was already a common dish at various dining tables in Chattogram.

The Chattogram-based online food company "Nitto Proyojonio BD" has sold over 18 Gayals in the last week with many other orders in the pipeline.

Iqbal Faisal, the founder of the company, said that for years, the company has been buying Gayals from the hills, processing them and selling the meat.

Iqbal said this is the first time he is selling Gayals for the Eid sacrifice and is getting a good response. "We are selling Gayal meat for Tk500-Tk550 per kg. Some are buying whole cows."

Gias Uddin Khan Mintu, the owner of Khan Agro in Satkania upazila, has been rearing Gayal commercially for the past two years.

This year, he reared 32 Gayal targeting Eid-ul-Azha. He has already sold 27 Gayals and is confident of selling the rest before Eid. 

Mintu told The Business Standard that Gayal rearing is very profitable because the cow does not need any extra food. "My farm is on the hills where Gayals graze all day long and return in the evening."

Mintu makes a hefty profit as his cows sell for Tk3 lakh to Tk4 lakh. They were bought a year ago for Tk1.5 lakh.

It takes a long time to tame these cows after they are brought from the highlands. But slowly they become calmer by mingling with other livestock.

Junayedul Haque, who bought a Gayal for the first time for Eid sacrifice, said he chose the animal this year because it is a free-range cow that only grazes on natural food.  

Gayals have many differences from the common cow or buffalo with the biggest one being of a much larger size and having bigger weight. An adult Gayal can weigh between 400 and 800-900 kg.

Besides, Gayals cannot be milked because females have small udders.

Their horns are very thick and long from the base. Adult ones have black or brown skin with white spots on the lower part of the legs.

Wild but tamed

Native to hilly areas, hill people have been rearing Gayals for ages and have always been fond of its meat which they prize dearly. 

Most families in the hills own five to seven Gayals which are marked to identify the owner.

The animals, however, are left to graze freely deep in mountain forests where they roam free and remain wild, not fully domesticated. 

If it is saleable, it is caught and sold with a salt trap. 

It is believed that  Gayals were brought to the plains a decade and a half ago.

Cattle traders climb hills for several days to buy Gayals from the villages and bring them down to the towns to sell them.

Ershad Mahmud, the owner of Sukh Bilas Farm of Rangunia, said he brought three Gayals from a mountain village in 2007 and started rearing them. Later he collected more. 

"Now we sell 150-200 Gayals every year," Ershad said.

"Initially, it was a hobby, but now it is part of our business. At the same time, the breeding of the near-extinct animal is also increasing in the country."

He said that every year different farmers in the country collect Gayals from him.

Gayal in danger

Gayal is known locally as the "hill cow" or "forest cow". Many people also call it "Chattogram Bison". The original habitat of the animal is in the dense forests of the mountains of Bangladesh.

In 1964, Gayals were removed from the list of wild animals and considered cattle, Chattogram Wildlife and  Biodiversity Conservation Officer Dipannita Bhattacharya said.

With only a handful of wild Gayals left in the forests of the country, the animal is being successfully bred at several safari parks, the forest officer said. 

For instance, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park Cox's Bazar has two Gayal calves and 15 adults. 

There are plans to reintroduce some of these captive Gayals into the wild.

Dipannita said wild Gayals' main threat comes from habitat destruction and illegal hunting. 

Her office is trying to raise awareness to protect wild Gayals that still roam the forests.