The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Kerala completes livestock census

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 22, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala completes livestock census

T. Ramavarman

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State has successfully completed the month-long data collection process of the livestock census programme on the targeted day of October 15, fixed across the country, according to Director of the Animal Husbandry Department R Vijayakumar.

Dr Vijayakumar told The Hindu here that and the `quick estimates’ on the data collected would be available by month-end. ``The Centre has asked us to give the State level quick estimates within two months. But we have asked the field veterinarians to sent in their local level quick estimates by next week, so that we would be able to work out the State level figures by month-end.”

He said about 8550 enumerators were deployed in the 16,000-odd wards across the State to collect data as part of the livestock census which was launched in mid-September.

Asked about the wide-spread reports about the decline of the livestock population in the State, Dr Vijayakumar said such impressionistic reports could be tested only with the help of the census data.

The Additional Director of the Department K G Suma said as per the last census conducted in 2003 the total livestock population in the animal sector in the State was 34,81,396. They included 21,22,453 cattle, 64,618 buffaloes, 3,631 sheep, 12,13,173 goats, 76,452 pigs and 1069 other animals. In the poultry section the total population was estimated as 1,22,15,762 in the last census. Dr Suma gave the break-up in the poultry sector as 10,991832 fouls, 6,60,609 ducks, 21,97002 broiler birds and 2760323 other birds.

Emphasising that an accurate view on the size of the cattle population in the State would be possible only after the census data was collated, Dr Suma said the figures collected as part of the animal vaccination programmes however did not indicate a drastic decline in the cattle population in the State in the recent years, though there had been a gradual decline.

She said the next phase of the vaccination drive, launched as part of the Animal Disease Control Project (ADCP), would begin in 11 districts in December to cover the animals left over in the earlier phase. In the other three districts --Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta-- the next phase of vaccination would be launched in January.

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