Livestock population climbs to 535.78 mln, number of cows rise to 145.12 million: Census

India's livestock population increased to 535.78 million, with the number of cows rising 18 per cent to 145.12 million as compared to 2012, according to latest census.

The Livestock Census-2019, released on Wednesday, showed that the population of sheep, goat and mithun grew in double digits while the count of horses and ponies, pigs, camels, donkeys, mules and yaks declined.

"The total livestock population is 535.78 million in the country showing an increase of 4.6 per cent over Livestock Census-2012," the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying said in a statement.

Among the states, West Bengal reported the highest increase of 23.32 per cent in livestock population, followed by Telangana (22.21 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (15.79 per cent), Bihar (10.67 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (11.81 per cent).

However, the livestock population witnessed a decline of 1.35 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan (1.66 per cent) and Gujarat (0.95 per cent).

As per the 20th livestock census, the share of cattle is 35.94 per cent, goat (27.8 per cent), buffaloes (20.45 per cent), sheep (13.87 per cent) and pigs (1.69 per cent).

Total bovine population (cattle, buffalo, mithun and yak) rose by one per cent to 302.79 million compared to 2012 census. Mithun is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh.

"The total number of cattle in the country in 2019 is 192.49 million showing an increase of 0.8 per cent over previous census. The female cattle (cows population) is 145.12 million, increased by 18 per cent over the previous census (2012)," the statement said.

The exotic/crossbred and indigenous/non-descript cattle population is 50.42 million and 142.11 million, respectively. The indigenous/non-descript female cattle population increased 10 per cent in 2019 as compared to previous census.

The population of the total exotic/crossbred cattle rose 26.9 per cent in 2019 as compared to previous census.

"There is a decline of 6 per cent in the total indigenous/non-descript cattle population over the previous census. However, the pace of decline of indigenous/non-descript cattle population during 2012-2019 is much lesser than as compared to the 2007-12 which was about 9 per cent," the statement said.

Total number of buffaloes rose about 1 per cent to 109.85 million while the the count of milch animals (in-milk and dry) in cows and buffaloes is 125.34 million, an increase of 6 per cent over the previous census.

According to the data, the total sheep in the country is 74.26 million in 2019, up 14.1 per cent.

Goat population is up 10 per cent at 148.88 million but pig population declined 12 per cent to 9.06 million, as per the latest census.

The other livestock including mithun, yak, horses, ponies, mule, donkeys, camel together contribute around 0.23 per cent of the total livestock and their total count is 1.24 million.

Donkeys population fell 61 per cent to 1,20,000 in 2019 while camel population declined 37 per cent to 2,50,000.

"The total horses and ponies in the country is 3.4 lakh (3,40,000) in 2019, decreased by 45.6 per cent over previous census," the statement said.

Apart from livestock, the ministry said poultry population rose nearly 17 per cent to 851.81 million in 2019.

The total birds in the backyard poultry jumped 46 per cent to 317.07 million. Total commercial poultry is 534.74 million in 2019, up 4.5 per cent over previous census numbers.

The 20th Livestock Census was conducted with the participation of all States and Union Territories. It covered about 6.6 lakhs villages, 89,000 urban wards snf and involved more than 27 crore households and non-households.

The census report contains state-wise details of both livestock and poultry. Since census in Delhi is yet to be completed, the figures concerned are from the previous census.