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, …
A research team at the University of Minnesota in USA found antibiotics in plants. The root of the problem was in the soil: manure from animals that were administered antibiotics. The plants tested included tomato, lettuce and potato. Given this, says the research team led by Satish Gupta, a shift …
A disease that afflicted northwestern Kenya last year has killed about 100,000 goats and sheep in Turkana district of the country. The disease, peste des petits ruminants, also called goat plague, is not common in Kenya. It first came up in Turkana in March 2006 and was diagnosed in July …
Nine species of vultures are recorded from the Indian subcontinent. The populations of three resident Gyps species, namely Oriental White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Long- billed Vulture Gyps indicus and Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris crashed during the mid nineties of the last century. Vulture declines were first documented at Keoladeo National …
Sua Nath is usually an amiable farmer. But ask him about mining in his village, Bagjana, and he flares up. Nath is among those who have taken it upon themselves to protect this village in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district from mining. The anti-mining movement has, in fact, struck roots in many …
Some innovations change lives. A favourite of mine is the village milk collection system, a cooperative model. There's a dairy in the village, people bring in milk, the dairy in-charge places a sample on an instrument, checks the fat content, prints a receipt that tells the seller the fat content …
Livestock is an important occupation of the farm households in the North-Eastern states. However, a large percentage of animals in this part of the country are of non-descript types; less productive and poorly managed. These poor breeds of animals are the source of meat, milk, curd, ghee and other milk …
Dhole (Cuon alpinus), a pack-hunting canid, is a coursing predator of the Asian jungles. It preys on wild ungulates such as Sambar and Wild Pig and also on livestock when available. The propensity of Dholes to attack livestock, however, had resulted in the people of Bhutan nearly eradicating Dholes in …
Vulture conservation in India is in a state of flux. The only point that researchers agree on is that it is absolutely vital but there is no consensus on how to go about it. There is a dispute regarding vulture censuses, the causes for their decline and even the measures …
One doesn't really expect carrion scavengers to be gastronomes. So, a restaurant for vultures does seem something of an oddball. But the vulture restaurant at Kawasoti, Nawalaparasi district, some 100 km from Kathmandu, provides vultures with something that's become a rarity for them: carcasses cleaned of diclofenac residues. Environmentalists say …
The decision by Jammu and Kashmir's Leh district to declare the Changthang region a highaltitude wildlife sanctuary has put Ladakh's Changpa nomads in a fix. The nomads have, for long, been using the land for grazing their livestock including their famous pashm goats. They say the decision will hem them …
Though camel slaughter is banned in India, slaughter and export of camel meat is thriving in many districts of Uttar Pradesh. According to unofficial estimates, more than 5,000 to 7,000 camels are transported from Rajasthan to abattoirs in western Uttar Pradesh every month. The meat is then exported to a …
As the Rift Valley fever grips Kenya, at least 75 people have died and another 183 infected since the disease was first reported in November 2006. More than 500 livestock have so far died from the disease and the outbreak has forced the closure of livestock markets in the North …
