A SUCCESS STORY OF PANTJA GOATS

Rinkal Sundriyal¹, Princi Tiwari² and Dr. D.V. Singh³

3^rd Professional year¹ and 2^nd Professional year², BVSc & AH.

Professor & Head³, Department of Livestock Production Management, CVASc., GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand

“We were attracted by their looks, deer-like appearance, shiny fawn color and white line on face, alertness and activeness in the fields while grazing and what more to tell you about them, my dear students.” These were the few words of the Professor who fell in love with these beautiful creatures of God, wandering in front of them in field but remained unnoticed by others since time immemorial. The Team led by Dr. D.V. Singh is the first to get any animal breed registered for the state of Uttarakhand.

Here is a realistic incidence that will compel you to explore the meaning of the quote, “Today is an opportunity to see something new or see something in a new way.”

It is evident that Goats are known as ‘Poor man’s cow’. Due to low capita investment, easy handling and ability to adopt in versatile environmental conditions, goats are well integrated in the farming system of the small and landless farmers. In the hilly regions, goat farming has become a strong economic pillar for the animal keepers. Scattered holdings and huge losses in fields due to wild animals lead the farmers getting away from farming and garden activities. Such situations are common findings in most of the villages including some parts of Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts of Uttarakhand where the business of animal husbandry had been the major source of income.

As per the 20^th Livestock Census, the goat population in India in 2019 is 148.88 million showing an increase of 10.14% over the previous census. About 27.7% of the total livestock is contributed by goats. Total goat population in rural area has increased by 10.35% whereas in urban area, the population of goat has increased by 5.78%. A breed is a specific group of animals having homogeneous appearance, behavior and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals of the same species, found in that region.

Profound knowledge and unbridled enthusiasm of Team leader helped them to recognize the goat breed, ‘PANTJA’, which is reared for meat and milk in Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts of Uttarakhand as well as adjacent Tarai area of Uttar Pradesh. Professor Singh has been working in different projects on goats since 2004 till date. Pantja goats are well adapted to hot and humid conditions of Tarai region of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Twinning (67%) and tripleting (7%) are common in Pantja goat. However, they have also shown their extreme potential by giving quadruplets, in sporadic cases.

Dr. D.V. Singh, after gaining 19 years experience of working in Gujarat, has been serving as Professor & Head in Department of Livestock Production Management, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pantnagar since 2012. Along with this due to his curiosity in breeding experiments, at Pantnagar he undertook breeding projects on goats, financed by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Delhi and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Uttarakhand and presently All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Goats by ICAR-New Delhi. Under DBT project, he was asked to purchase 60 goats to start his breeding project on them. So, he with his team went for field survey for selection of goats which were commonly available in that region. And then the story took a new turn when he noticed some active flocks of goats wandering and running over the fields. They looked so smart, attractive and had deer-like appearance with fawn-brown colour dorsally which became lighter ventrally, with white stripes on face. They appeared to him as of new genotype apart from other flocks, recognized so far in the country.

TABLE 1: Parameters depicting superiority of Pantja goat to Barbari.

A new ray of curiosity developed and team started working over those attractive goats. They did various thorough researches and lots of field surveys and found that those goats were mainly distributed throughout in U.S. Nagar and Nainital districts, and also in neighboring districts. Goat keepers reported for their economic values in terms of prolificacy (high fecundity), more delicious meat than other types of goats available in that area and their adaptability in harsh hot-humid climate of Tarai region.

So, Professor Singh chose those special goats for breeding experiments under the Projects financed by DBT, New Delhi, RKVY, Uttarakhand and AICRP-Goat as well. Concurrently, a number of post-graduate and Ph.D. scholars carried out further detailed scientific study under guidance of Professors of the department and submitted MVSc. and Ph.D. theses. Ultimately, it is observed that Pantja goats are promising goats to Tarai region of Uttarakhand and neighboring districts of U.P.

Under the great efforts of Dr. Singh, a unique but simple to built device, “KIDS CRADLE” was developed to improve kids’ health and to protect them from predators and thus reducing dependence on labour for supervision. This kids’ cradle received a lot of interest in goat keepers and scientists, so much so that many goat keepers built this structure on the roof tops of their houses in hilly terrain of Uttarakhand.

Fig: a. Demonstration of Kids Cradle by Dr. D.V. Singh to Dr.KML Pathak, Dy. Director General, ICAR, New Delhi and his Team

1. D.V. Singh explaining the importance of Kids Cradle to his students
2. D.V. Singh explaining the importance to visiting goat keepers
3. Adoption of Kids’ cradle in high hills of Uttarakhand

Pictures credit Dr. D.V. Singh

Dr. Singh has also developed ‘Slatted Inclined Floor’ for the welfare of Pantja goats. This structure has also been adopted by goat keepers and is being used for education purpose.

Dr. Singh named this new breed as ‘PANTJA’ (Pant is taken from the place of its recognition i.e. Pantnagar and Aja is a Sanskrit term for goat). For registration of this breed, he applied to the NBAGR (National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources) Karnal, Haryana. Many teams came to the Pantnagar University Campus and visited field and farmers’ flocks, and his team work was ultimately recognized. The hard work of this struggle paid off and he was honored by the certificate for the successful registration of Pantja breed of goat with Accession Number “INDIA_GOAT_2420_PANTJA_06024” by Breed Registration Committee of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on January 6, 2015. A period of 14 years (2004-2015) was spent by him as an ascetic on exile for the recognition of Pantja breed all over the world, by working on farm of LPM Department, CVASc, Pantnagar and in field with goat keepers.

1. Pantja goat in its barn | Picture credit: Dr. D.V. Singh

“Difficulties are but dares of fate, obstacles but hurdles to try his skill, troubles but bitter toxins to give him strength; and he rises higher and looms greater after each encounter with adversity.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First and foremost, we are immensely grateful to G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, DBT- New Delhi, RKVY- Uttarakhand and AICRP- Goats, ICAR, New Delhi for providing the necessities of conducting this research and for bringing up the successful registration of first animal breed from Uttarakhand.

We owe an enormous depth of gratitude to Dr. S.K. Singh, Professor, Department of Livestock Production Management, CVASc., GBPUA&T, Pantnagar for being an ever ready helping hand during implementation of this research.

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1. PG/ PhD. Theses submitted on Pantja goats
2. Studies on the effect of certain Management intervention on well being of goats under semi–intensive System of rearing 2005
3. Studies on physical and performance traits of local (Pantja) goats of US Nagar district of Uttarakhand 2008
4. Study on some Haematological and Carcass traits in local pantja goat wethers 2011
5. Study on libido scrotal morphology and semen biology in the local Pantja bucks
6. A study on certain Physico-biochemical attributes of Pantja buck semen 2014
7. Studies on Evaluation of Efficacy of Herbal Plants anainst Gastrointestinal Nematodosis in goats 2016
8. A study on some physical and biochemical properties of urine collected from Pantja goats 2017
9. Study on various goat production system in Tarai region with special reference to Pantja goats 2017
10. Effect of modified housing system on performance of Pantja goats 2017
11. Epidemiological study of Caprine Neonatal kids disease and their clinical management in Tarai and Bhawar area of Uttarakhand 2017
12. Prevalence of neonatal diseases of caprine with special reference to Neonatal Septicemia in few districts of Kumaun region 2014
13. Effect of ardu (Ailanthus excelsa) leaf powder feeding on the performance of Pantja goats Evaluation of Pantja goat milk for gross composition and selected minerals

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