Himalayan Yak

The Himalayan Yak has been approved as a 'food animal' by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI).
The move is expected to help slow the decline of the high-altitude bovine animal's population by incorporating it into the conventional milk and meat industries.
Food animals are those that are raised for food production or human consumption.

About Himalayan Yak:

The Yak is a member of the Bovini tribe, which also includes bison, buffaloes, and cattle. It can withstand temperatures as low as -40° C.
They have long hair that hangs off their sides like a curtain, sometimes touching the ground, allowing them to live at high altitudes.
Himalayans place a high value on yaks. Tibetan Buddhism's founder, Guru Rinpoche, is said to have domesticated the first yaks.
They are also known as the lifeline of pastoral nomads in the Indian Himalayan region's high altitudes.
Yaks are traditionally raised through a primitive, unorganised, and difficult transhumance system.
They are endemic to the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding high-altitude regions.
Yaks are most at ease above 14,000 feet. When foraging, they can reach elevations of 20,000 feet and rarely descend below 12,000 feet.
Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir are the Indian states that raise yaks.

India's population:

The countrywide population trend shows that the yak population is rapidly declining. According to a 2019 census, India has approximately 58,000 yaks, a 25% decrease from the previous livestock census in 2012.
This sharp decline could be attributed to lower bovid remuneration, which discourages younger generations from continuing with nomadic yak rearing.
Yak milk and meat are primarily sold to local consumers because they are not part of the conventional dairy and meat industries.

Significance:

The yak serves a multifaceted socio-cultural-economic role for pastoral nomads who rear it primarily for nutritional and livelihood security due to a lack of other agricultural activity in the higher reaches of the Himalayan region where animals other than the yak struggle to survive.

Threats:

Climate Change: The rising temperature of the environment at high altitudes causes heat stress in yak during the warmer months of the year. This, in turn, affects the animal's physiological response rhythms.
Inbreeding: Because wars and conflicts have caused borders to close, yaks outside borders are thought to be suffering from inbreeding due to a lack of new yak germplasm from the original yak area.

Protection Status of Wild Yak (Bos mutus):

IUCN Red List Status: Vulnerable
IUCN considers the wild species of yak under Bos mutus, while the domestic form is considered under Bos grunniens.
CITES: Appendix I
Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972:Schedule I

Read Also: Red Panda and IUCN

Source: The Hindu

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