The farmers used to rear cattle with pleasure till a few decades ago. Today, they are abandoning them on road. These abandoned cattle are destroying the crops of the farmers. The cattle have become a curse instead of a boon to the farmer. The Government is collecting these stray cattle and trying to make adequate numbers of shelters to keep them in just as a variety of animals are kept in the zoo. The first reason behind this change is the disappearance of common grazing lands. Cows like to graze. Previously, our villages had common grazing lands where the cows would graze and produce milk, dung and progeny with very little requirement of additional feed. The common grazing lands have been captured by the powerful or used for other purposes like building of schools by the Government. The cow has been deprived of her traditional grazing lands and is no longer able to produce milk, dung and progeny virtually for free. The farmer has to now stall feed the cow which has made it difficult for him to rear cows. The second reason for the decline of the cow is that ploughing is now done by tractors, irrigation by bore wells and threshing by threshers. The requirement of bullocks for these operations has disappeared. Consequently, the male progeny of the cow has now become a burden upon the farmer. The farmer now keeps the male progeny only as long as the cow gives milk. He then abandons the progeny. The third reason is that the Government has prohibited the killing of cows including the male progeny. Previously, the male progeny that was not required for agricultural operations was sold to the butchers and provided some income. The farmer has been deprived of this income because the male progeny can no longer be sold to the butchers. The cow has become a burden on the farmer for these three reasons and he now prefers to rear a buffalo. The buffalo is a sedentary animal and is not impacted by the disappearance of common grazing lands. The male progeny of the buffalo is not used for agricultural operations and also can be sold to the butcher. The situation of the cow has become more adverse because the quality of the milk of the buffalo is found to be superior to that of the cow according to present standards.