India’s livestock population increased to 535.78 million, with the number of cows rising 18 per cent to 145.12 million from the 2012 figure, according to the latest census.

The Livestock Census 2019, released on October 16, showed that the population of sheep, goat and mithun grew in double digits, while the count of horses and ponies, pigs, camels, donkeys, mules and yaks declined.

“The total livestock population is 535.78 million, an increase of 4.6 per cent over the 2012 census,” the ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry & dairying said in a statement.

West Bengal reported the highest increase of 23.32 per cent in livestock population, followed by Telangana (22.21 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (15.79 per cent), Bihar (10.67 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (11.81 per cent).

However, the numbers witnessed a decline of 1.35 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan (1.66 per cent) and Gujarat (0.95 per cent).

As per the 2019 census, the share of cattle is 35.94 per cent, goats (27.8 per cent), buffaloes (20.45 per cent), sheep (13.87 per cent) and pigs (1.69 per cent).

The total bovine population (cattle, buffalo, mithun and yak) rose by 1 per cent to 302.79 million compared to the 2012 census. Mithun is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh.

“The total number of cattle in the country in 2019 is 192.49 million, showing an increase of 0.8 per cent over the previous census. The female cattle (cow population) is 145.12 million, up by 18 per cent,” the statement said.

The exotic / crossbred and indigenous / non-descript cattle population is 50.42 million and 142.11 million, respectively. The indigenous / non-descript female cattle population increased by 10 per cent in 2019.

The population of the total exotic / crossbred cattle rose by 26.9 per cent in 2019.

“There is a decline of 6 per cent in the total indigenous / non-descript cattle population. However, the pace of decline of indigenous / non-descript cattle population during 2012-19 is lesser than as compared to 2007-12, which was about 9 per cent,” the statement said.

The total number of buffaloes rose about 1 per cent to 109.85 million, while the count of milch animals in cows and buffaloes is 125.34 million, an increase of 6 per cent over 2012.

The number of sheep is 74.26 million in 2019, up 14.1 per cent. The goat population is up 10 per cent at 148.88 million, but the number of pigs declined 12 per cent to 9.06 million.

The other livestock, including mithun, yak, horses, ponies, mules, donkeys and camels together contribute around 0.23 per cent of the total livestock and their count is 1.24 million.

The donkey population fell 61 per cent to 120,000 in 2019, while the number of camels declined by 37 per cent to 250,000. “The total horses and ponies is 3.4 lakh in 2019, a decrease of 45.6 per cent,” the statement said.

The poultry population rose nearly 17 per cent to 851.81 million in 2019.

The total birds in backyard poultry jumped 46 per cent to 317.07 million. Total commercial poultry is 534.74 million in 2019, up 4.5 per cent over previous the census numbers.

The 2019 census was conducted with the participation of all states and Union territories. It covered about 6.6 lakh villages, 89,000 urban wards and 27 crore households.