Gauri Maulekhi, the force behind the cattle legislation

Maulekhi tried her hand at several professions before becoming a full-time animal rights activist

Perhaps the only time I fainted was when I first saw a maggot-infested dog during a roadside first-aid camp for animals in Lucknow.” All of 17 then, Gauri Maulekhi remembers that day in 1994 clearly for good reason — she poetically fell into a pile of cow dung. A year later, she would catch the eye of Maneka Gandhi, the chairperson of People for Animals (PFA), an animal rights, rescue and shelter NGO. 

“She gave me certain tasks and cruelty cases to address. The next time she visited Lucknow, I apprised her of the progress.” There was no looking back after