Cattle population again down but decline rate far lower than 2012

LUCKNOW: The cattle population has further declined in Uttar Pradesh, according to the provisional 20th livestock census data released by the Central government on Wednesday.

The fall is, however, much less than what it was in 2012 and authorities believe the number will go up when the Centre comes out with the final districtwise data.

Stray cattle, as per the policy, are not taken into account for the purpose of animal census conducted every five years. There are around 10 lakh stray cattle, of them 4 lakh are living in some 4,000 temporary cow shelters erected by the Yogi Adityanath government all over the state.

The provisional data has registered an overall decline in the livestock population by 1.35% -the number of total livestock coming down from 68.7 million in 2012 to 67.8 million in 2019. Barring buffalos, whose population has been found to have gone up by 7.81%, there is a decline in almost all other categories.

Among the 10 major states, only Rajasthan and Gujarat apart from UP have reported a fall in the overall livestock numbers. West Bengal registered a growth of 23.32% that is highest in the country.

“Though overall there is a decline in the livestock population and the cattle population has also dipped slightly, let me say these are not the final figures and we hope the number will improve after the final data is made available to us,” director, animal husbandry, UB Singh said on Friday.

What is interesting is that contrary to the national average that is slightly up, even cattle population has been found to be down by 3.93% vis-à-vis 2012’s. Cattle population in UP in 2012 was found to be 19.6 million, which has come down to 18.8 million in 2019.

Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha are other major states that have registered a decline in cattle population. Jharkhand has registered a growth of 28.16% which is the highest in the country followed by Bihar (25.18%), and West Bengal (15.18%).

The total cattle population in the country has been found to be 192.49 million during 2019 and it is an increase of 0.8% over the previous livestock census, 2012.

A senior animal husbandry department official dealing with census said though the cattle population has decreased but the decline was less compared to 2012’s. “The cattle population in the state in 2012 was found to have been declined by 7 % over the 2007 livestock census,” he said adding the Yogi government’s aggressive cow protection policy had in fact helped check the decline.

“When the final report comes, you will also see the decline is in the number of male cattle only and an impressive growth in female cattle,” the official said. Nationally, female population has increased by 18% this year while male cattle population dipped 30.2%.

Buffalo population in UP has been found to be up by 7.81% that is the second highest growth after MP where buffaloes grew by 25.88% during the same period.

The 20th Livestock Census was carried out in the about 6.6 lakhs villages and 89 thousand urban wards across the country.

› Though overall there is a decline in the livestock population and the cattle population has also dipped slightly, let me say these are not the final figures and we hope the number will improve after the final data is made available to us UB SINGH, director, animal husbandry