-Down to Earth Change is taking place in the way the Centre and state governments look at pastoralism; the belief that livestock management is done better in stable conditions is changing The opening up of India’s first camel dairy at Nakhatrana taluka in Gujarat’s Kutch district in 2018 helped Mura Mangal resume pastoralism. “In 2006, we had some goats, but it was getting difficult to earn enough money. So I took up a...

-Down to Earth New government report finds fewer indigenous individuals among these species, although experts blame non-registration of breeds as a reason. The origins of over half of India’s cattle, sheep, goats, horses, ponies, mules, donkeys and pigs are not known, according to a new report on the country’s livestock released by the government recently. The country’s water buffaloes too have fewer purebred individuals, although its Camels still have that distinction according to...

-Down to Earth Chinese medicine responsible for decline in donkey population; lack of grazing areas and mechanisation responsible for camel’s decline The population of donkeys and Camels in Gujarat has declined 71 per cent and nine per cent respectively, the state’s livestock minister told the legislative assembly recently. Gujarat’s mules and donkeys had declined to 11,291 in the 2019 Livestock Census, from 38,993 in 2012, Raghavji Patel told the assembly in an answer...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org Maharashtra police detained five traditional herders from Kachchh on January 7 suspecting these semi-nomadic pastoralists were smuggling Camels to slaughterhouses in Hyderabad. Also detained: 58 Camels “We have not confiscated these 58 Camels,” asserts Inspector Ajay Akare, in charge of the Talegaon Dashasar police station in Amravati district. “We don’t have the powers to do so since Maharashtra has no specific law against cruelty to these animals.” “The Camels,” he says, “are...

-Article-14.com Barring Rajasthan and Punjab, meat-consumption in India has risen over the decade. But with higher-caste, politically dominant Hindus turning to vegetarianism, at least 23 states now have beef bans, 15 states disallow even eggs in midday meals and Air India has largely turned vegetarian. India's enforced vegetarianism and how it violates the Constitution and rule of law. Ludhiana & Mumbai: A few weeks before India’s Covid-19 second wave, one of the...