DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2014.v02i03.010

Pages: 419-427

Livestock husbandry is one of the important sub sectors of agriculture in India contributing a major portion of GDP to the country, thereby shaping the socio-economic conditions of the people. It has been practised as auxiliary activity in the process of production of different food and non-food grains crops since antiquity. Various kinds of livestock species like cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, hen and pig etc. were reared as domesticated. In the present paper an attempt has been made to find out the growth and spatio-temporal distribution of livestock husbandry in Dehradun district of Uttarnchal. The study is based on the block-wise published data obtained from Statistical Bulletin of Dehradun district. The spatio-temporal pattern of livestock is determined with the help of six variables. Beside this, the analyses have been carried out by transforming and combining the data related to six variables, using ‘Z’ score to get the Composite Score. On the basis of Composite Score, development blocks have been categorized into three categories i.e. high, medium and low. Results of the aforesaid analysis shows that Dehradun district is one of the important districts in livestock population as well as in milk production. The high positive growth of livestock in the study area is due to increasing demand of buffalo beef at local, national as well as international level. The Sheep and Goat by comparison is more dominant in Chakrata and Kalsi blocks because the extensive dairy land in Chakrata block and in the adjoining other blocks of the district provide vast expanse of grazing land. As such, goat and sheep are reared with grazing facilities available. The present study reveals that the development of livestock has been recorded in the northern part of the district due to the favourable ecological and environmental conditions.