Aug 1, (DHNS): A day after beef merchants in Kerala ended their two-day shutdown protesting attacks on vehicles transporting cattle from other states, trade continued to be dull and more hotels started displaying no-beef signs.

Beef merchants and slaughterhouses in the state had downed shutters on Wednesday and Thursday to protest against attacks on cattle trucks from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, reportedly by Sangh-affiliated outfits, near Palakkad and Wayanad.

Representatives of beef traders’ associations said support from the state government on the issue have been limited and the state, known for its flourishing beef trade, was staring at possibilities of acute shortage. Conservative estimates put beef as constituting more than half the share of meat consumed in the state. According to beef merchants, close to 90 per cent of the trade depends on cattle arriving from other states.

“Issues near the two border districts have led to a drastic fall in numbers of loads coming in from other states. On an average, Kerala used to receive 150 loads with 30 cattle each, every day. It has come down to about 10 loads now,” K M Ummer, vice-president of the Kerala state Beef Merchants Association, told Deccan Herald.

While activists against cow-slaughter claimed to have intercepted trucks and “freed” the cattle or relocated them to dedicated cow shelters in Tamil Nadu, reports said some of the animals were later re-sold. Sources said cattle markets in and around Coimbatore district have been affected since the emergence of anti-cow slaughter “activism” in the region.

Managers of some of the hotels in Thiruvananthapuram city said beef would be off the menu till things “settled down”. The market has, over the past four days, seen at least a 30 per cent hike in beef prices; the red meat now costs around Rs 280 per kg