The tanning industry in Vellore, which is considered the hub of Indian leather exports, has moved the Centre to remove buffaloes from its latest notification. They have argued that the animal does not hold any religious significance to people of any particular faith, reports The New Indian Express.
The Centre’s ban on the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter would adversely affect the leather industry, according to leather exporters. The development has reportedly put tannery owners on the edge about their business, which with a 40% share, forms the backbone of Indian leather export.
"The campaign against cow slaughter has already brought down sales. If the ban is extended to buffaloes, at least 250 companies in Ambur and surrounding areas will suffer directly," said S Faiyaz Ahmed, General Secretary of Ambur Tanners Association, to TNIE. "Now we will have to struggle for raw materials. Workers at leather manufacturing companies will start losing jobs from September," he added.
According to the report, the Rs 5000 crore tannery sector in Vellore sources 90% of skin and rawhide from places including Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The 1,230 leather companies in Vellore employ 1 lakh people directly and 2.5 lakh people indirectly, besides earning an estimated Rs 2000 crore annually in foreign exchange. These, figures exporters claim, will be hit by the notification.
Not just in Vellore, leather exporters across the country are demanding that the decision be revoked or amended. They have even threatened agitation if nothing is done by the Centre, to change the rules that came into force on May 27. The Regional Chairman (East) of the Council of Leather Exports said: "The decision of the Centre is nothing but handing over of death certificate to the 35 million people involved in the leather industry and its allied sectors."