The National Research Centre on Yak (NRCY) at Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district has tied up with the National Insurance Company Ltd. for insuring their livestock. The high-altitude yak, feeling the climate change heat across the Himalayan belt, will now be insured.
“The countrywide population trend shows that yak population has been decreasing at an alarming rate. Further, climate change and inexplicable changes in the weather pattern have been reported from the yak rearing areas throughout the country,” according to NRCY.
The insurance policy will shield the yak owners against the risks posed by weather calamities, diseases, in-transit mishaps, surgical operations and strikes or riots.
The total yak population in India is about 58,000. The Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir have some 26,000, followed by 24,000 in Arunachal Pradesh, 5,000 in Sikkim, 2,000 in Himachal Pradesh and about 1,000 in West Bengal and Uttarakhand. A four-year-old report said the number of yaks across the country declined by almost 24.7% between 2012 and 2019.
The domestic yak (Bos grunniens) is a long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Northern Myanmar, Yunnan, Sichuan and as far north as Mongolia and Siberia. It is descended from the wild yak (Bos mutus).
