BIDAR: The Shimoga-based Ramachandrapura Math has set up a cattle bank to protect and preserve indigenous cattle breeds. The bank has taken up a project to preserve the Deoni breed of cows and bullocks which are unique to Bidar and are facing extinction.

The bank works on a barter principle. People who want to send cattle to the slaughterhouse can send them to the bank and poor people who want to keep a cow but cannot afford it can take a calf free of cost, according to the bank's conservation officer Sadashiv Montimaru. "We encourage poor farmers to deposit the calf with us and take it back after it becomes a cow or a bull. This saves them the cost of rearing the cattle," he said.

The bank has distributed 720 cows and 80 bulls of the Kankrej breed to farmers. The bank's farms are rearing over 10,000 cattle in Hosnagara in Shimoga, Kaggalipura in Bangalore rural district, Muliya, Bajakudlu, Kairangal, Sulya and Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, Kasargod in Kerala and Mumbai. The math plans to set up 108 such farms across the State and in other parts of the country. The bank's branches would come up in each district and each branch would have a farm and a computerised office, he added.

"The Bidar branch will come up on the outskirts of the city. We are concerned about the dwindling number of Deoni cattle in the country. The variety is disease-resistant and is useful for small farmers. Their numbers have decreased by over 80 per cent in the last ten years. We will highlight their utility and encourage farmers to keep Deoni cows and bulls. We will also discourage them from artificially inseminating Deoni cows. We will be working along with the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries University," Mr. Montimaru said.

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