What a Gaushala Costs — and Why Every Rupee Is Counted

When someone adopts a cow with us, the first question is almost always the same: where does the money actually go? It is a fair question, and one we are glad to answer in full. A rescued cow is not an abstraction — she eats a measured amount of fodder every day, she needs shelter from heat and rain, and sometimes she needs a vet at two in the morning. Those costs are real, recurring, and countable.

The daily cost of keeping one cow well

A healthy adult cow in our care eats roughly fifteen to twenty kilograms of green and dry fodder each day, supplemented with mineral mixture and clean water. Across a month, fodder alone is the single largest line in her budget. To that we add bedding, shelter maintenance, and a share of the salaries of the gau-sevaks who feed and clean twice a day, every day, without a holiday.

• Green and dry fodder, plus mineral supplements — the largest monthly cost.
• Shelter upkeep: roofing, flooring, drainage and shade against the summer heat.
• Routine veterinary care, deworming and seasonal vaccination.
• A share of gau-sevak wages — the people who do the daily work of care.

Why we itemise instead of estimating

It would be easier to quote a single round figure and move on. We do not, because a round figure hides the trade-offs we make every month. When fodder prices rise in a dry season, we would rather show donors the higher number than quietly cut a cow's ration. Itemising keeps us honest, and it lets an adopter see the direct link between their monthly gift and a specific animal's wellbeing.

A cow cannot ask for her fodder. That is exactly why the accounting has to be perfect.

How we track every rupee

Each shelter logs its fodder purchases, vet visits and repairs against a monthly budget. Those logs roll up into the accounts our chartered accountant audits each year, and the summary appears in our annual report. When you adopt a cow, the amount you give maps to a real slice of that budget — not to overhead you cannot see.

If you would like to be part of this, adopting a cow from a fixed monthly amount is the most direct way to fund her care and follow her progress with photo updates. Every gift is eligible for an 80G tax receipt.