India Buffalo Meat Facts I Yogi Adityanath’s effort to curb illegal slaughter of animals in Uttar Pradesh has drawn attention to the massive buffalo meat industry of India. India exports of buffalo meat are estimated to have reached 20 lakh tons per year. Domestic production is estimated to be around 40 lakh tons. This requires the slaughter of around 3 crore buffalos annually. Nearly a quarter of our currently estimated buffalo population is thus slaughtered every year. This is very high level of butchering for a herd that is the mainstay of the milk economy, at least in North India. On the average, nearly 1 lakh buffaloes are slaughtered in India every day to sustain the fast growing buffalo meat industry. This large-scale butchering has been encouraged and assisted by the Department of Animal Husbandry and its export promotion arm known as the Agriculture and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) about which we shall have more to say in the subsequent posts.
India Buffalo Meat Facts I
