Spatial pattern of methane emissions from Indian livestock

Abstract

Methane is an important greenhouse gas which signi-ficantly contributes to global warming. Livestock is a major anthropogenic source of methane emission from agriculture. India possesses the world’s largest live-stock population of 485 million, with a high degree of diversity in its composition. Among the livestock cate-gories, cattle dominate with 38.2 % followed by goat (25.7%), buffalo (20.2%), sheep (12.7%) and others (3.3%). The detailed state/district-level methane emis-sion inventory by age-groups, indigenous and exotic breeds of different livestock categories was estimated using the country-specific and Indian feed standard-based emission coefficients and recent livestock census 2003. The total methane emission from Indian live-stock, which includes enteric fermentation and manure management, was 11.75 Tg for 2003. Enteric fermen-tation accounts for 10.65 Tg (~91%) compared to 1.09 Tg (~9%) by manure management. Dairy buffalo and indigenous dairy cattle together contribute 60% of the total methane emission. The three high methane emitter states are Uttar Pradesh (14.9%), Rajasthan (9.1%) and Madhya Pradesh (8.5%). The detailed district-level spatial analysis in GIS environment resulted in the identification of clusters of districts with high emissions. Among these, Mednipur District (West Bengal) reported the highest total methane emission of 0.12 Tg. Using the remote sensing-derived livestock available feed/fodder area, the average methane flux from Indian livestock was computed as 74.4 kg/ha.