Milkmen of Palabavi village near Chikkodi in Belagavi district threw around 1,500 litres of milk into an irrigation canal as they had no way to sell it during the COVID-19 lockdown.
They emptied around 50 cans of milk into the Ghataprabha left bank canal, the video of which has been circulating on social media.
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The milkmen said they were suffering losses due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The private company that bought their milk at ₹30, was offering them only ₹10 per litre. The KMF procurement unit in the village had stopped buying milk. At current prices offered by KMF, the milk would have been worth around ₹50,000.
They bought milk from local cattle rearing farmers and sold it to a private company. They bought cow milk at ₹22 per litre and buffalo milk for ₹32 per litre. They would get a profit of around ₹3 per litre when they sold it to the company. But they would suffer huge losses if they were to sell for ₹10 a litres. Unwilling to suffer losses, the youth decided it was better to throw away the milk than to try to sell it, members of the local Gouli community said.
