Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying organized a workshop on ‘Count of Pastoralists and their Livestock in 21^st Livestock Census’ in Indore, Madhya Pradesh today. This workshop was organized to have better idea on practice of Pastoralism, their habitats, routes in different areas etc. and to arrive at a common consensus on different issues like inclusive definition of Pastoralist, data to be collected and methodology to collect data.

The states having pastoralists like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir etc., NGOs dealing with pastoralists like Sahjeevan: Center of Pastoralism, Desert Resource Center etc. and different Gov. Organization dealing with pastoralism like Development and welfare Board for Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Tribal Research Institute of Gov. of Madhya Pradesh etc. were the participants of the workshop.

Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying conducts livestock census across the country in every 5 years since 1919. The last livestock census i.e. 20^th LC was conducted in 2019. 21^st livestock census is due in 2024. There is a demand to collect the information on Pastoralists and their livestock in 21^st Livestock Census.

The livestock census is the main source of data for proper planning and formulation of Livestock Welfare Programme for bringing further improvement in this sector. The livestock census usually covers all domestic animals and head counts of these animals which includes various species of animals (cattle, buffalo, mithun, yak, sheep, goat, pig, horse, pony, mule, donkey, camel, dog, rabbit and elephant)/poultry birds (fowl, duck and other poultry birds) possessed by the households, household enterprises/non-household enterprises at that site Breed-wise with their age, sex.

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