Population trends and distribution of indigenous sheep in India

Abstract

The Indigenous sheep are rich in variability and are endowed with many positive traits like superior disease resistance, high prolificacy and better tolerance to heat/humidity and feed scarcity etc. The present status of indigenous sheep was evaluated in terms of the population trend and their distribution at state and district level. It is estimated that population of indigenous sheep will increase to 79.654 million by 2031. Only four states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan account for the 76.7 and 74.9 percent of the indigenous and total sheep population of India. The region comprising only six districts of Anantapur, Prakasam, Kurnool, YSR, Chittoor and SPSR in the state of Andhra Pradesh possesses 18.6 percent of the indigenous sheep population of the country. Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh has the largest population of indigenous (4.655 million) and total (4.927 million) sheep, while, Wanaparthy district of Telangana has highest density per km2 and per 1000 households for indigenous (453.4 and 7898.1) and total (453.9 and 7906.8) sheep, respectively. During 2007-2012, the population of indigenous sheep registered a decline of 9.64 percent, but the rate of decline in the population of recognized breeds (21.9 percent) was more than twice as fast during the same period.