Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has approved the Himalayan Yak as a ‘food animal’. The move is expected to help check decline in the population of the high-altitude bovine animal. NRC-Yak had submitted a proposal to the FSSAI, for considering the yak as a food animal.
Yaks provide a variety of socio-cultural and economic functions for the pastoral nomads who raise them. Yaks are traditionally raised using a crude, disorganised, and difficult transhumance method. According to Dr. Sarkar, the number of yaks in the nation has been dropping alarmingly in recent years. India now possesses 58,000 yaks, which is a 25% decrease from the previous livestock census in 2012, according to the most recent census conducted in 2019.
Yak milk is highly nutritious, rich in fat and contain essential minerals and have medicinal value. Yak farmers produce various traditional meat products which are confined to local community level. The decline in yak population could be attributed to less remuneration from yak and so the younger generations are reluctant to continue with nomadic yak rearing.
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