31% fall in bullock in 7 years.

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31% fall in bullock  in 7 years.

   With increasing use of agricultural machinery especially tractors, demand for bullocks for agricultural purposes has gone down over the years.Official data shows the number of bullocks has decreased by 31 per cent in the last seven years in the state.

    Fisheries and animal resources development (FARD) minister Ranendra Pratap Swain told the assembly that the requirement of bullocks has declined due to reduction in usage of the animals in plowing and bullock carts.

    Official sources in the FARD department said there were 43 lakh bullocks in 2012,but the total number has drastically fallen to 29.85 lakh in 2019.

    The state has witnessed a 31 percent decline in the number of bullocks within seven years.The minister said they do not enumerate the population of bills in the state separately.Odisha Milk Farmers Association (OMFA) chairman Rabi Behera said the situation has drastically changed after the introduction of farm mechanization techniques and machines.Even rising pricing of animals feed and death of cultivable land have contributed to the fall in number of bullocks,he added.

     He said people abandon male calves because it does not serve their purpose.People keep the female calves as they can later provide milk, he added.

   A Bhubaneswar municipal corporation (BMC) official said people abandon the male calves which results in the rise in the number of stray bullocks and they pose a threat to commuters.Sometimes even cause accidents.

   The official said that they take extra steps to rehabilitate these animals and added that the growing population of bullocks is a headache for most urban local bodies.