Story of a Milky Affair
A Milky Affair
Rashtrapita Mahatma Gandhi took an exposure of dairying at the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Bangalore in 1927. He recorded his intro as “M.K. Gandhi, a farmer from Sabarmati”. In the picture, the great educationist and visionary Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya is also seen.
This research institute is actually the sprout of the present National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) currently functioning from a sprawling campus of about 1400 Acres at Karnal. The Imperial Institute was established in 1923 at Bangalore. With further expansion and strengthening of R&D infrastructure, it became Imperial Dairy Research Institute, later to be known as the Indian Dairy Research Institute on attainment of independence in 1947.
The foundation stone of present NDRI was laid on 7 August, 1955 at the Cattle Breeding-cum-Dairy Farm, Karnal on the recommendation to have a national level Dairy Research Institute at or near Delhi. Facilities at Bangalore were retained to function as a regional station to serve the southern states. In 1989, NDRI was granted the status of Deemed University to further strengthen the quality human resource development programmes.
The birth of “Pratham”, the first IVF buffalo calf of the world, in 1990 and the world’s second cloned buffalo “Garima” in 2009 are the hallmark achievements of NDRI
