Chilika buffalo Photo: ARIJIT MONDAL · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

Chilika buffalo

Chilika is a small, hardy, brackish-water adapted buffalo of coastal Odisha, registered with NBAGR in 2010. The breed is uniquely associated with the Chilika lagoon — Asia's largest brackish-water lake — where pastoralists graze herds on saline mangroves and floating grass islands. Animals routinely swim 2-3 km between islands and tolerate saline drinking water far better than mainland buffaloes.

Origin and distribution

The home tract is Puri, Khordha and Ganjam districts surrounding Chilika lake. Herds historically followed a transhumant pattern — grazing the lake's grass islands in summer and returning to mainland villages in monsoon. Climate-change-driven salinity increases are pushing pastoralists to register and conserve the breed, supported by ICAR-CIRB and OUAT, Bhubaneswar.

Morphology

Chilika is the smallest of India's mainland buffalo breeds — adult cows 320-380 kg, bulls 380-450 kg. Coat is typically black or dark grey; white markings are common on forehead, switch and fetlocks. Horns are flat, sword-shaped, curving backward and outward, smaller than Jaffarabadi's. The body is short and stocky with a low-slung belly suited to wading. The hooves are notably broad and splayed — an adaptation to marshy ground.

Productivity

Lactation yield is modest at 500-800 kg over 250-280 days, but milk fat averages 7-9% and SNF 9-9.5%, giving a respectable fat-corrected yield (Milk Fat Snf Pricing). The real value of Chilika is its ability to produce milk on grazing alone — concentrate is rarely fed — on land that no other buffalo or cattle breed can use productively.

The breed shows excellent tolerance to saline water, foot-rot, ecto-parasites and the high humidity of coastal Odisha. Calves are small at birth (18-22 kg) and survive flood years better than mainland breeds.

Management

Traditional Chilika rearing requires no shed — animals stay on grass islands for 8-9 months a year, returning to mainland villages only during cyclone season. In settled smallholder systems, a daily ration of 15-20 kg grass + 1-2 kg concentrate is adequate. Pure-breeding through community-bull arrangements is encouraged — indiscriminate Murrah crossing produces calves that cannot swim well and lose the breed's unique grazing niche. Mastitis is rare because grazed udders stay dry; foot-rot prophylaxis with copper-sulphate footbaths in monsoon is recommended.

Sources

Chilika buffalo — NBAGR breed profile. ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal.
Chilika — Dairy Knowledge Portal. National Dairy Development Board.