MUMBAI, March 4 (UPI) -- Indian President Pranab Mukherjee approved a bill that bans the consumption, sale or possession of beef in the state of Maharashtra, with punishments up to five years in prison and more than $150 in fines.
The beef ban, which took effect in the state that includes Mumbai, India's financial capital, came as an amendment to a 1972 law prohibiting the slaughter of cows. The new ban has been expanded to bulls, bullocks and calves, but not water buffalo. India's large Hindu population reveres cows as a symbol of life.