The 21st Livestock Census will kick off in Kerala on Friday, as part of a nationwide headcount, the State Animal Husbandry department has said.
The census will be conducted over the next four months. More than 3,000 enumerators, consisting of Animal Husbandry department staff and Kudumbashree members trained as Pashu Sakhis will visit close to 1.6 crore households and establishments to collect data and upload them via a special mobile app.
Originally scheduled for roll-out in September this year, the nationwide launch was delayed on account of technical issues.
Once in five years
Conducted once in five years, the census is designed to provide comprehensive information on domestic animal and poultry bird populations in rural and urban areas. It will cover cattle, buffalo, mithun, yak, sheep, goat, pig, horse, mule, donkey, camel, pig, dog (including strays), rabbit and elephant and birds, including chicken, duck, turkey, emu, quail, guineafowl, ostrich and geese.
In addition to this, information on slaughter houses, meat processing units and goshala (cow shelters) also will be compiled as part of the census, the State Animal Husbandry department said.
Pashu Sakhis as enumerators
Of the 3,155 enumerators for the 21st Livestock Census, more than 2,800 are trained Pashu Sakhis — community resource persons in the livestock sector — under the Kudumbashree, the Executive Director, Kudumbashree said in a statement.
Pashu Sakhis were roped in for the task following a demand that livestock inspectors under the Animal Husbandry department be exempted from census duty to avoid the disruption of their day-to-day work related to livestock vaccinations and livestock-related programmes of local self-government institutions.
Published – October 24, 2024 06:59 pm IST