Indigenous livestock wealth of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India - Status and prospects for characterization

Abstract

Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the northern states of India, together occupy almost 9% of the total land area of the country. The topography includes fertile plains and hilly areas. This land is endowed with enormous biodiversity of livestock genetic resources. Unfortunately, only 15 breeds have so far been registered from this region, 12 from Uttar Pradesh and only 3 from Uttarakhand. These animal genetic resources evolved in the local environment, provide livestock products, promising assets during agriculture crisis and may have unique characteristics like disease resistance, thermo-tolerance, medicinal value of meat and milk and utilization of low-quality feed. Their full economic potential cannot be exploited until they are characterized.  Since livestock diversity is declining rapidly world-wide, the need of hour is to characterize, document and conserve our livestock diversity of our animal genetic resources. As per the latest livestock census (2019), Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand possess 68 million and 4.4 million livestock population, respectively. Despite huge livestock population in Uttar Pradesh and enormous biodiversity in Uttarakhand, the numbers of registered breeds are very less. In this review, we have summarized the status and prospects of animal genetic resources of two Indian states namely, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Recent trends and conservation required for their better utilization have also been included. This comprehensive information would help researchers, activists and policy makers involved in characterization and conservation of livestock genetic resources.