Landhi Dairy Colony (also known as Bhains Colony or Landhi Cattle Colony), is the world's largest buffalo colony, located in

Bin Qasim Town Bin Qasim Town ( sd, بن قاسم ٽائون, ur, ) is a Constituent Town of Karachi, lying on the eastern part of the city, north of Port Qasim. Bin Qasim Town was formed in 2001 as part of The Local Government Ordinance 2001, and was subd ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, Sindh,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Bhains Colony regularly supplies more than 80% of the milk in Karachi.. The

New Zealand Agency for International Development The New Zealand Aid Programme is the New Zealand Government's international aid and development agency. The New Zealand Aid Programme is managed by the Pacific and Development Group in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT ...

funded a pilot scheme to turn animal waste into energy and fertilizer. According to the NZAID website, the project is "designed to bring substantial economic and environmental benefits to the people of Landhi". The purpose of the project was not only to curb the "pollution problem caused by animal waste, but also to lift the living standards and improve the environment of the local people."

History

The Landhi Dairy Colony (LDC) is located in the suburbs of Karachi. It was established in 1958 within an area of for 15,000 animals. Today, it has about 1,500 farms spread over . It has a dairy animal population of about 400,000 (around 95% buffaloes and 5%

cows Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

, as well as an unknown number of

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

and

goats The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of th ...

), with a daily yield of about four million litres of milk and 7,200 tones of dung, making it the world's largest dairy colony. Buffaloes are the biggest source of milk here, just as they are in the rest of Pakistan. Individual farmers often own up to 200 animals each. The majority of the milking animals in LDC are kept only for one lactation phase and consequently approximately 10 to 12 percent of the population is replaced every month. After the lactation period, the majority of the animals are sold to breeders or for slaughter and only a few are kept by the dairy farmers for re-breeding. Most of the animals are brought to and from the animal rich districts of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

and Sindh.

Waste to energy project

The first gobar (cow dung) gas-fired power plant (25 MW) in Landhi Bhains Colony is on the cards. This will not only take care of a part of the colony's dung - turning a negative feature into a positive one - but also yield 1,500 tons of natural fertilizer daily. The project will resolve a significant environmental problem and simultaneously produce badly needed electricity in the city of Karachi, which is an immediate and pressing need. The importance and scale of the project is underscored by the inauguration of the project by H.E. Mr. Phil Goff, Minister for Trade of the

Government of New Zealand , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

together with the Karachi City Nazim,

Syed Mustafa Kamal Syed Mustafa Kamal (Urdu: ; born 27 December 1971) is a Pakistani politician who was the founder and chairman of Pak Sarzameen Party. He was previously a senator in the Senate of Pakistan and served as the mayor of Pakistan's largest city, Karac ...

. On 15 April 2007, the inauguration of a project to convert the animal waste to fuel and fertilizer took place. The cattle produce 7,200 tons of waste per day; the lack of treatment caused enormous problems. The project prevented the dumping of waste in the sea and instead used the dung to produce methane gas for power generation (25 MW) as well as producing 1,400 tons of dried fertilizer per day.INAUGURATION_OF_LANDHI_CATTLE_COLONY_WASTE
/ref> Syed Feroz Shah, the director of the National Engineer Corporation in a joint briefing with Tony Woods and Ann McLean of Empower Consultants said it was the second ever

Carbon credit A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit a set amount of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas (tCO2e). Carbon credits and carbon markets are a compo ...

project for Pakistan. The project started in 2005 when NZAID provided up to $500,000 in funding. According to Phil Goff, after the inauguration of the project in April 2007, the "New Zealand organisations and others that have played a central role in developing this important project can be justly proud of their achievement and the project will also add another important dimension to our growing bilateral relationship with Pakistan”

Other cattle colonies in Karachi

* Al-Momin Dairy Farming Society,

Gadap Town Gadap Town ( sd, گڏاپ ٽائون , ur, ) is a town in the northwestern part of Karachi with the Hub River on its western limits also forming the provincial border between Sindh and Balochistan, while to the north and east are Jamshoro Dist ...

* Nagori Cattle Colony, Super Highway * Surjani Cattle Colony,

New Karachi Town New Karachi Town ( ur, ) lies in the northern part of the city Gulberg Town. It was formed when katchi abadis were resettled following the 1958 coup d'état. In 2001 it was subdivided into 13 union councils. The town system was disbanded in ...

* Bilal Cattle Colony,

Korangi Industrial Area Korangi District ( ur, ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Karachi last modified in 2013, part of the Karachi Division in Sindh, Pakistan. Map of Karachi Division History The district was a part of District East in Kara ...

* Saif Cattle Colony, Gulshan-e-Hadeed.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Dairy industry awaits modern inputs - Engineering ReviewRainy season linked disease in LDC - Daily Times

Waste to energy' project launched in Pakistan - NewZAID
1958 establishments in Pakistan Dairy farming in Karachi Waste management in Pakistan Dairy organizations Agricultural organisations based in Pakistan Animal husbandry in Pakistan