NEW DELHI, 25 Jun: A team of officers of the Arunachal Pradesh animal husbandry, veterinary & dairy development department, led by Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Minister Gabriel D Wangsu,participated in a workshop “to strategise and empower the states/UTs for the upcoming 21st livestock census,” to be conducted by the union animal husbandry & livestock department, at Vigyan Bhavan here on Tuesday, an official statement informed.
Addressing the workshop’s inaugural function, Wangsu sought the Centre’s cooperation for effective livestock enumeration in hilly states like Arunachal.
“Conduct of livestock enumeration in sparsely populated hilly and tough terrain is a challenging task as many villages are situated on hilltops or slopes where there is no road communication,” the minister said, and added that “it requires days of foot march to reach many villages, especially those lying along the international borders.”
Wangsu emphasised the need to increase the number of enumerators and supervisors in Arunachal “to ensure timely and precise data collection.” He also urged the central government to give importance to information, education and communication activities “to extensively create awareness among the rural masses on livestock census.”
He advocated correct enumeration and digitising the data of livestock and poultry resources of the country, saying that it would “immensely contribute in shaping our plan and strategising developmental agendas.”
The team of officers from the state also included Animal Husbandry Secretary Hage Tari.
Earlier, the workshop was inaugurated by Union Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, the statement read.
