Dambarudhar: The champion of the

Introduction: Ethnoveterinary practice is as old as the domestication of various livestock species. They comprise belief, knowledge, practices and skills pertaining to healthcare and management of livestock. According to the World Health Organization, at least 80% of people in developing countries depend on indigenous practices for control of various diseases affecting both human and animal. In India livestock owners use traditional medicines based on the formulation of plant since livestock origin. Mr. Damburdhar Gouda belongs to village Ladakhaman, Sunger gram panchayat in Kashipur block of Rayagada District mainly depends upon livestock for his livelihood security. As he has not enough land for agriculture, so livestock rearing has been his main source of income and food security. He has 25 hens, 40 goats, 6 buffaloes, 10 cows and 12 bullocks. He takes care of his domestic animals with all the effort. Still diseases and health issues of livestock are regular in the rural area. In many times, diseases and epidemic claims animal life which results a great loss for livestock farmers. In the rainy and winter season livestock became more vulnerable towards diseases and death. The veterinary hospital is situated at the 25 km distance from the village Ladakhaman. In spite of several invitation to the veterinary doctors, no one comes to visit the village to treat the domestic animals and birds. If animals get affected by any disease they die mercilessly. Farmers have no other option without praying to the god to save their animals. Damburdhar was facing same kinds of problems in every year. He had heard about ethno-veterinary practices for livestock promotion from his grandfather. But he was not very aware on this. Intervention: Living Farms, an organisation has been working on the food sovereignty through agroecological approaches and reviving traditional food system in the Kashipur Block by the support of Terre Dese Hommes, organised a 3 days training program from 27 th to 29 th October 2023 on ethnoveterinary practices for livestock promotion. Dambarudhar did not miss the chance to join the training program. He along with other 35 farmers from the Block attended the training program and learned about the ethnoveterinary practices like preparing medicines for various diseases by using local resources and its application, deworming, preparing nutritious food for domestic animals for better growth etc. After returning from the training, Dambarudhar prepared ethnoveterinary medicines and nutritious food for his livestock and experienced a very good result with in the two weeks of time. His goats were affected by mouth ulcer, cold and skin infection. He prepared a solution from alloevera and turmeric, applied in the mouth of the goats. For cold and running eye, he prepared ethnoveterinary medicines with black pepper, betel leaves, ginger and jagery and fed to the goats. To treat skin infection, he poured tobacco leaf with water over night and applied the water on the skin of the goats. This was a great experience for Dambarudhar. All the affected goats became cure and returned to the normal. If this would have been like earlier situation, at least four to five goats must have died. As well as he also treated his buffalos with the ethnoveterinary medicines and made them disease free. This was like a moving experience for Dambarudhar. First time this year, he did not lose his livestock due to the diseases. He is expecting around Rs.40000 to Rs.50000 by selling the livestock this year. He shared this experience with other farmers of the village. They came to his cattle shed and experienced the impact of the ethnoveterinary practices. There are near about 50 households in the village Ladakhaman have livestock and all of them were suffering with the same problem like Dambarudhar. They shared their interest to learn about the ethnoveterinary practices. Dambarudhar trained them about various medicines, deworming methods, nutritious food preparation by demonstration with the help of Living Farms. Now this knowledge is not limited to the Dambarudhar only. All the livestock farmers of Ladakhaman are practicing ethnoveterinary measures to treat their livestock. Along with this Dambarudhar and other farmers are preparing nutritious medicines for their goat, poultry and cattle. Dambarudhar is not stopped here. He has relatives at Kalahandi district. When he had gone to Kalahandi, he has trained farmers there also. Now Dambarudhar is a master trainer on ethnoveterinary practices. He is conducting training programs for farmers of the neighbouring villages. Conclusion: Now Dambarudhar is very happy that, he has been able to save the life of his domestic animals, as a result his profit has been multiplied and he has been able to bring the changes in the life of other farmers by train them on the ethnoveterinary practices. When people call him ethnoveterinary doctor, he smiles with shy and says this ethnoveterinary practice is not new to us Adivasi people. We had just forgotten and thanks to the Living Farms, they reminded us. He also says that I have an aim that, no livestock will die in our region due to the diseases. Livestock is like savings for bad time for us. Livestock rearing protects us from selling the land.