CAPTIVE BREEDING COMES TO THE RESCUE OF TODA BUFFALO AS ITS POPULATION PLUMMETS IN NILGIRIS

Officials say that the population ranged from 15,000 to 20,000 across the district a few decades ago. But a 2023 enumeration of the buffaloes in all Toda hamlets revealed that less than 1,000 animals were left. Hence, the Sheep Breeding Research Station at Sandynallah has begun a programme to help the population re-establish itself in the hills

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Rooted in the hills: The Toda buffaloes are well adapted to the Nilgiris. They thrive on coarse pasturages and tolerate the cold rain and hail of the southwesterly monsoon and the heavy ground frosts of the northwesterly monsoon. The Sheep Breeding Research Station at Sandynallah has bought 30 buffaloes from the Todas for breeding.

Rooted in the hills: The Toda buffaloes are well adapted to the Nilgiris. They thrive on coarse pasturages and tolerate the cold rain and hail of the southwesterly monsoon and the heavy ground frosts of the northwesterly monsoon. The Sheep Breeding Research Station at Sandynallah has bought 30 buffaloes from the Todas for breeding.

Over the last three decades, the population of the Toda buffalo, an indigenous species of water buffalo linked to the culture of the Toda tribals, has declined by more than 90%. In a new initiative, the Sheep Breeding Research Station at Sandynallah in the Nilgiris has begun a captive breeding programme to help the population re-establish itself in the hills, even while trying to understand its genetic make-up.