Hop over to Subhas Sarovar, opposite Swabhumi, to see some unusual cattle. A group of nomads, on an all-India tour, has come from Maharashtra and has got with them several cows with deformities — some have five or six legs, one has a “third eye” and a third horn. 

There are at least four cows with one or two extra limbs. These small legs jut out from their shoulders or backs. A brown bull, believed by the nomads to be an avatar of lord Shiva, has what looks like a deformed third eye on its forehead and three horns instead of two, shaped like a trident.  

“They are all Gau-matas,” says Shivaji, the head of the caravan. Around six families, comprising some 20 people, have come in nine vans decorated with idols of gods. “We are devotees of Sai Baba and are travelling to spread his word.”
Shivaji says they have a cowshed in Solapur and that people of the region come donate such “blessed” cows to them. The group has spent about a week by the lake and toured Salt Lake three times, besides places like Shyambazar and Kalighat.

They live on alms and plan to leave for Tarapith on Sunday. 

“These cows have rare congenital defects. The polymelia (having more than the usual number of limbs) could be the result of in-breeding depression. These are problems that occur from breeding among close animal groups,” says Dr Sunit Kumar Mukhopadhyay, vet and pathology professor at West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences in Belgachhia. Dr Mukhopadhyay works in the field of genetical defects and chromosomal pathology. 

“The bull seems to have a rudimentary eye on its forehead — a dislocated eye tissue during embryonic development. It would be possible to remove these deformities with surgery but they would be expensive. In any case these cattle can lead normal lives now,” says the doctor.