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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: India's problem with sacred cows

Documentaries

A cow resting in Varanasi

21/01/2022 GMT

India's problem with sacred cows

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, India's problem with sacred cows

The havoc being caused by nearly a million stray cows in Uttar Pradesh

The havoc being caused by nearly a million stray cows in Uttar Pradesh, destroying crops and causing injury and even death.

Uttar Pradesh has a problem with cows. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus, and since the BJP state government banned illegal slaughterhouses five years ago, small farmers have had no way of legally disposing of unwanted cows. There are now nearly a million stray cows roaming around farmland, destroying crops, and causing injury and even death, as BBC Hindi's Nitin Srivastava reports.  

Brownie, Chile's 'first dog' 
Chile's recently elected president, Gabriel Boric, won with the highest number of votes in Chilean history. But equally popular is his dog, Brownie. With his own social media accounts, Brownie has proclaimed himself 'the first dog of the Republic of Chile'. BBC contributor Constanza Hola tells us more about her country's most popular pet.

Avocado rustling in Kenya 
Kenya's avocado sector has become so lucrative that organised criminal gangs are targetting growers. Farmers have started to hire vigilantes and even use drones to guard their trees, as Emmanuel Igunza of BBC News in Kenya discovered.

Yoga refusenik Suhail Haleem
Another chance to enjoy BBC India's Suhail Haleem's lack of flexibility when it comes to India's famous export, yoga.  

AFCON: 'fouled by the pitch' and other excuses
BBC Africa's Peter Okwoche and BBC Sport's Isaac Fanin share their experiences of covering the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon, and taking on Yaoundé’s Greenfield Football Academy Under 10s (and losing!).  

Remembering Anita Mui 
There’s nostalgia in Hong Kong for singing star Anita Mui, who died in 2003, but who’s remembered by many and celebrated in a new film, Anita. Zhijie Shao has been reporting for BBC Chinese on her enduring fame.

(Photo: A cow resting in Varanasi. Credit: Enzo Tomasiello/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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