Himalayan yak gets food animal tag; milk and meat to be used

Subject: Environment

In the news-

The Himalayan yak has earned the food animal tag from the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI).

About the Yak-

The domestic yak (Bos grunniens), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin State (Northern Myanmar), Yunnan, Sichuan, Gilgit-Baltistan (Kashmir), and as far north as Mongolia and Siberia.
It is descended from the wild yak (Bos mutus).
The yak plays a multidimensional socio-cultural-economic role for the pastoral nomads who rear it for their food and livelihood due to the lack of other agricultural activities in those regions.
Yaks are traditionally reared under a transhumance system.

Declining population of yak-

The yak population in the country has been decreasing at an alarming rate.
According to a census carried out in 2019, India has some 58,000 yaks – a drop of about 25% from the last livestock census conducted in 2012.
The drastic decline in the yak population could be attributed to less remuneration from the bovid, discouraging the younger generations from continuing with nomadic yak rearing.
It is mainly because yak milk and meat are not a part of the conventional dairy and meat industry, their sale is limited to local consumers.
The categorisation is expected to help check the decline in the population of the high-altitude bovine animal by making them a part of the conventional milk and meat industry.

Nutrient-loaded-

Yak milk is highly nutritious, rich in fat, contains essential minerals and has medicinal values.
According to the nutritional analysis, yak milk contains 78-82% water, 7.5-8.5% fat, 4.9-5.3% protein, 4.5-5.0% lactose and 12.3-13.4% solids-not-fat.
The products which are traditionally produced from yak milk are churkum, churpi, ghee and paneer.
Mostly consumed locally, yak meat is known to be lean.
The meat contains 74.8% moisture, 21.7% protein, 1.5% crude fat and 1.2% ash.