Telangana tops in Meat & Liquor consumption across the country

Telangana stood top in the list of meat and liquor consumption across the country. According to the report submitted by the Telangana State Sheep & Goat Development Co-operative Federation Limited to the Telangana State Government, the National annual per capita consumption of meat is 5.4 Kgs, whereas the same is recorded as 21.7 Kg in Telangana. When it comes to liquor consumption, according to the survey on alcohol consumption conducted by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment, the number of boozers in Telangana is higher than that of the national average of 17.3 percent.

With the drastic changes in the food habits of the people, Telangana state stood top with the high number of non-vegetarians across the country. As the demand for the meat of sheep and goat increasing rapidly, the cost of the one kg meat hiked from Rs.800 to Rs.1,000. The Telanganites have been eating the meat with meals twice or thrice in a week. The production and sales of the meat of sheep and goats recorded at 9.75 lakh tons in the state in the last four years. If one calculate the cost of a kg meat on an average at Rs.600 the total spent of the Telanganites on meat is Rs.58,500 crore in the above said period. According to the recent study, the rate of the sheep and goat meat of one Kg at international market is between Rs.600 to Rs.700, whereas the same has been sold at Rs.1,000 at the retail markets in Telangana.

According to the findings of the recent survey, as much as 19 percent of the Telangana state's population has been consuming the liquor, in other words, there are 50.4 lakh boozers in the state. The findings revealed that, it is higher than the national average of 17.3 percent. According to the National Health Survey, Telanganites consume more alcohol than the boozers in any other state in the country. When it comes to other states, the neighbouring Telugu State Andhra Pradesh as much as 17.3 percent of the entire population has been consuming population where over 65 lakh Andhrites are boozers. The States such as Chattisgarh (43.5%) , Uttar Pradesh (29.5%), Goa (28%), Punjab (25.2%), Delhi(25%), Uttarkhand(23.2%), Madhya Pradesh(21.4%), Odisha(18.9%) and West Bengal(18.2%) according to the findings of the survey based on the percentage of alcohol consumers of the total population in the respective states. Barring the two Telugu states, southern states including Tamil Nadu (15.5%), Kerala(13.5%) and Karnataka(7.2%) have recorded with less number of boozers.