Livestock Census is a regular quinquennial exercise of Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD). The first Livestock Census was conducted in the year 1919 and last census i.e. 20th Livestock Census was conducted in 2019. The 21st Livestock Census exercise has been launched across the country on 25th October, …
in the 1970s, crocodiles in India were on the verge of extinction. Surveys conducted with the support of the World Wide Fund for Nature ( wwf) , Bombay Natural History Society and the New York Zoological Society indicated that almost 90 per cent of these reptiles had been wiped out. …
there was a time when the double-humped Yarkandi camel served as a vital means of transport on the 6,400-km historic 'silk route'. Camel caravans carried tea, silk and porcelain of China to the bazaars in the Middle East and as far as the Byzantine empire and Rome. Traders from Central …
nature played into the hands of science recently when researchers at the us -based Audubon Institute Center for Research of Endangered Species transferred a frozen embryo of a rare African wildcat to the womb of a domestic cat. Later, the feline mother delivered successfully. "If extinction happens in the wild, …
after three seasons of captive breeding, the endangered species of pygmy hogs have risen from six to 51 at the research centre in Basishta, on the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam. The centre was set up under a Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme in 1995 after the animal, which was believed to …
India's ambitious missile programme seems to have turned turtle. Highly placed officials of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Baliapal, Orissa, say they have postponed their testing of an improved version of the Agni missile for the second time. The move, they say, aims to help mass nesting of …
with the advent of the breeding season, the blue hills of Munnar in Kerala are once again alive with frolicking calves of nilgiri tahr. The first birth of a tahr calf was registered on January 12 and, till the last week of January, eight more calves had given birth in …
while certain species of wild animals have hogged the attention of conservationists, India is losing its wealth of genetic resources in domesticated animals. Native breeds are being lost due to misdirected crossbreeding with exotic stock, indiscriminate crossing of native stocks, and slaughter of animals for export. Domestic animals, which are …
Over 90,000 people residing in several low-lying districts of Gujarat were evacuated due to heavy rainfall which lashed the state this rainy season. Relief Commissioner B P Meena said that the water level in the Narmada, Mahi, Vatrak and Sedhi rivers were receding. The Army was deployed in several districts …
Ignorance is bliss indeed, but only where it is a folly to be wise. In the Indian context, when it comes to crossbreeding programmes, those in charge cannot afford to even pretend to be ignorant of the fallout of these programmes. Crossbreeding, specifically that of cattle was done in India …
AN EXPLOSION in the population of Antarctic fur seals has caused wide- spread changes to many coastal, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in the northern maritime Antarctic islands and on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Dominic A Hodgeson and Nadine M Johnston of the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, conducted …
The Bangladesh ministry of environment and forests has decided to grant licence to parties interested in setting up private farms for breeding and rearing wildlife species. The recent decision by the Wildlife Advisory Board came as a happy tiding to those who have, over half a decade, struggled to obtain …
Community farming of geckos could well benefit the Vietnamese economy and environment. Or so believes Bob Murphy, a herpetologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, who recently paid a second visit to Vietnam to catalogue the new species of lizards. Murphy has undertaken a us $15,600 mission to …
INDIAN scientists have developed a method to determine the sex of farm animal embryos before they are implanted in surrogate mothers. Recently, some calves whose sex was known at the embryonic stage were born at the Shree Nasik Panchawati Panjrapol (SNPP) -- a regional centre of the Anand-based National Dairy …
Scientists at the Delhi-based National Institute of Immunology (NII) have developed a method for sex-specific identification of raw meats in cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique -- used for copying and amplifying the target deoxyribonuclic acid (DNA). Says S M Totey of the NII, …
Indian Council of Agricultural Research Krishi Bhawan New Delhi 110 001 Bharatiya Cattle Resource Development Foundation F-58, Kalkaji New Delhi 110 019 National Dairy Research Institute Karnal 132 001 Haryana Central Institute for Research on Buffalos Sirsa Road Hisar 125 001 Haryana Central Institute for Research on Goats Makhdoom, Farah …
RAM Chandra Tokas, a 48-year-old rich Haryana farmer of village Chochran, bought 4 ungainly buffalos 7 years ago to start a dairy business. Today, he makes a fat profit: a single buffalo fetches him about Rs 7,000 annually. Tokas owns 9 animals and does brisk business every year in Haryana's …
EIGHT years ago, an odd battle was fought in the US: conservators debated whether the Californian condor should be rescued from the brink of extinction through captive breeding or left to "die with dignity". There were only 5 of these giant gallant birds left in the wild and the only …
THIS story is one of horrifying domestic slaughter. The preamble to it is that the World Conservation Strategy (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 1980), recognises livestock breeds as genetic resources, with rare breeds considered worthy of conservation: the genes they carry may be commercially applicable …
IS RATIONALITY a solely human chartersistic ? Perhaps not, contend two evolutionary biologists who applied a decision making model similar to one used for social behaviour of a bird called the white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bulockoides). These birds, common to east and central Africa, live in joint families of five to …
THOUGH India has a record number of cattle, its milk production is low. This is mainly because most of the cattle are of an inferior quality. Worse, the few superior breeds in the country are being neglected and even slaughtered, experts say. One way of increasing milk production could be …
