The report — an outcome of undercover investigations done in 320 dairy farms across 16 major milk producing states including Maharahstra— detailed the filthy settings and daily abuse meted out to captive bovines in the country.

Video footages collected by the investigators in an 18-month study starting November 2006, exposed that milch cows were regularly artificially inseminated in an unscientific and unhygienic manner and given hormones that caused them to produce more milk. One such drug is the banned Oxytocin, which according to PETA members is habitually administered to the cows. Campaign manager N Jayasimha said, “In fact, the drug is so easily available, that you could just walk down to the Goregaon tabelas right now and find them.”

The representatives studied the dairy farms in two-three cities in every state. “In Maharashtra, we investigated Mumbai, Sangli, Sholapur and Nashik tabelas and surprisingly, the atrocities were existent in all the regions,” Nikung Sharma, vegan campaign coordinator said. He pointed out that in foreign countries people are fast adopting a vegan diet.

Having listed the inhuman conditions prevailing in dairy farms, especially in states like Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Andra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, PETA now plans to urge the union government set a umbrella standard for dairy farms across India.

“There is a need for central regulation for tabelas in the country. We will forward our report with our request to the ministry of health and animal husbandry as well as the dairy cooperatives. If there is an umbrella rule, it will be much easier to implement standards in individual sates,” Jayasimha said.