There’s a lot of excitement around India’s buffalo exports touching USD 5 billion.
And though it may seem like a huge triumph, nobody mentions the environmental cost of this “achievement.” Recent research by reputable institutions like the University of Oxford are categorical: the deleterious impacts of animal agriculture are principal drivers of climate change and environmental breakdown. Simply stated, rearing animals is recognised as the leading cause of droughts, floods, water scarcity, deforestation, habitat and biodiversity loss, desertification, eutrophication, ocean dead zones…and the list goes on.
This “achievement” thus raises a host of questions, especially – but not only – at a time when here at home we are already trying to navigate the effects of climate and environmental breakdown, and taking into account the following facts:
- India is home to the world’s largest cattle population, while we occupy 2.4% of the global landmass;
- India is the world’s most populated country and has one-fourth of the global hungry population;
- Nearly 30% of our land is degraded;
- We lose thousands of acres of forests every year for agricultural expansion.
Dairy production carries its own set of uncomfortable facts.
- According to DairyNews7x7, the water footprint of milk production in 2022 in India was more than half that of total water required for irrigation in 2025.
- India is already ranked amongst the most water-scarce countries in the world, says the NDDB report.
- This same report states that we are the world’s highest extractors of groundwater, 89% of which is used for agricultural irrigation (8% is attributed to municipalities, 2% to industries, and 1% to others).
- This same report states that India’s dairy water footprint (WF) is 1078 litres of water for 1 litre of milk against the global average of 1020 litres of water per litre of milk.
- This same report states that about 70% of total agricultural water use is for crop production and 30% is for livestock.
- According to this same report, on average a healthy adult lactating buffalo requires at least 75 to 80 litres of clean drinking water daily, and in the summers it can go beyond 100 litres plus a bath twice a day to manage heat.
Further still, India tops the chart in global methane and nitrous oxide emissions – greenhouse gasses respectively 80 times and 285 times more potent than CO2 in warming the planet – thanks to our massive cattle population. Buffaloes produce the highest methane per litre of milk.
This “achievement” is even more questionable when we ask ourselves how it is possible that we have enough feed for 300 million plus cattle but not enough for the 520 million people in India who either go hungry daily or who do not have access to a healthy diet…
At the end of the day, all the applause, pats on the back and PR stunts crumble when faced with worsening environmental deterioration and climate chaos. India urgently needs agricultural policy that ensures nutritional health, environmental sustainability, and food sovereignty. Animal agriculture – no matter what you call it and no matter the form it takes – runs contrary to all of those goals. This new benchmark for buffalo exports is not an achievement, but instead a total fiasco where the environment, the climate and the general population are the big losers.
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