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Kalahandi buffalo Photo: brazil topno · Pexels License · source ↗

Kalahandi buffalo

Kalahandi is a medium-sized dual-purpose buffalo of the tribal districts of southwestern Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh. Registered with NBAGR in 2015, the breed is also known locally as "Parlakhemundi" or "Peddakimedi" buffalo. It is kept primarily for draught and manure in rainfed tribal farming, with milk as a secondary product.

Origin and distribution

The home tract is Kalahandi, Nuapada, Balangir, Rayagada and Koraput districts of Odisha, extending into adjoining Bastar and Dakshin Kosli of Chhattisgarh. The breed evolved in the hilly, forested, low-input farming systems of these tribal regions where it shares grazing land with non-descript cattle and is occasionally crossed with wild buffalo at forest edges.

Morphology

Adult cows weigh 380-420 kg and bulls 450-525 kg. Coat colour is jet black, occasionally with white markings on the legs and forehead. Horns are characteristic — long, curved sword-shape sweeping backward and upward, often 50-60 cm in adult bulls. The body is compact with a strong back and well-developed hindquarters, suited to ploughing in heavy black soils.

Productivity

Kalahandi is primarily a draught breed. A pair of bulls can plough 0.4 ha/day in heavy soils and pull a 1-tonne cart over 20-25 km. Lactation yield is modest at 700-1,200 kg over 280-300 days, with milk fat of 7-7.5%. Calves grow well on grazing alone and reach 350 kg at 30 months — making Kalahandi a useful breed for meat off-take in tribal economies where male calves are otherwise low-value.

The breed is highly resistant to tick-borne diseases, foot-and-mouth disease and the heat-humidity stress typical of forest-margin Odisha.

Management

Traditional rearing is silvopastoral — animals graze forest fringes by day, return to night-shelters near homesteads, and receive paddy straw + 1-2 kg rice gruel as supplement during work seasons. ICAR-CIRB and OUAT have established a breed-conservation herd at the Bhawanipatna Livestock Research Station; community-bull programmes supply registered Kalahandi bulls to discourage indiscriminate Murrah crossing that erodes draught ability.

See also: Chilika buffalo, Murrah buffalo, Jaffarabadi buffalo, Luit swamp buffalo.

Sources

  1. Kalahandi buffalo — NBAGR breed profile. ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal.
  2. Indigenous buffalo breeds of Odisha. OUAT extension bulletin.