Nomads fenced in

Penny foolish, pond wise

Rise of livestock

Policy makers in India are finally acknowledging a structural shift in the agriculture sector they have been noticing for a decade. Economic contribution of livestock is today more than that of food grain crops. Traditionally, of the three components of the sector—crops, livestock and fisheries—crops drove the growth, and food grains are a major part of it. As a result, policy and programmes focused on crops.

Astray?

Gir National Park, Gujarat, western India The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) here has, of late, developed an allegedly dubious habit young males are flexing their muscles, by ranging far beyond a territory administered, with due pride, by the forest department, even as far as coastal forests in Diu

The milk that ate the grass

SCENE I: 5 am in the morning, a household in any part of India. The milkman rings the doorbell. The sleepy-eyed customer takes the daily quota of the white fluid and prepares for the day ahead. There are more than 900 million people in the country. The demand for milk is stupendous. And the country just became the largest producer of milk in the world.

Vanishing breeds

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.

Letters - December 31, 2011

Cautious Warning It appears that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has tightened its procedures in the hope of preventing errors in terms of the language used in its report (‘Future shock’, November 16-30, 2011).

Now cattle feel the heat

IN 1860, Charles Darwin encouraged cattle owners to maintain data on a special breed of cows living in Northumberland county, northern England. Little did he know that 151 years later these records, which included births and deaths, would provide evidence of how climate change is affecting breeding patterns in Chillingham wild cattle.

Village in arms

Masinagudi residents are apprehensive of what Mudumalai tiger reserve holds for them On July 15, inside the core of Mudumalai tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu, a group of workers waited for a jeep to take them to Masinagudi--a small town with a contiguous village--few kilometres away. After hours when the jeep did not turn up, it was rumoured that the drivers were on strike. The rumours were not totally unfounded. The panchayat of Masinagudi in Nigiri district has dug its heels against the notification of a buffer zone of the tiger reserve.