Hindus consider the cow holy, but until recently many farmers took their old cows to slaughterhouses."We used to sell our cows once they stopped giving milk or were no longer fit for ploughing fields. That was our back-up plan for hard times," says Shiv Pujan, a paddy farmer.But Prime Minister Narendra Modi"s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has cracked down heavily on cow slaughter in keeping with its right-wing Hindu agenda - the practice is now illegal in 18 states, including Uttar Pradesh, or UP.