Vol. 8, Special Issue 3 (2023)

Gaushalas are the protective shelters for cows and also rescue the cattle destined for illegal slaughter. Gaushalas are secure shelter for ownerless and stray cattle. As per the 19th livestock census, there are 8.12 lakhs indigenous cattle in Haryana, of which 3.06 lakhs (37.7%) are kept in 408 Gaushalas and most of these are low-producing, injured, old, sick cows or surplus males. Keeping this consideration in view to plan to observe was carried out to study the herd structure and herd dynamics of cattle in Gaushala. The data was collected from 34,279 animals which were reared by 30 Gaushalas from 10 districts, from April 2017 to February 2018 through interviews using a structured questionnaire and by onsite observation. These 30 Gaushalas were divided into three categories based on the total number of animals present in Gaushalas small (100-500 animals), medium (501-1000 animals) and large size Gaushalas (> 1000 animals). The data was collected on various categories of cattle maintained in different sizes of Gaushalas. The obtained finding showed that the population of cattle including milch cows, calves and heifers were 39.1% and the remaining 58.72% were unproductive cows, bulls and bullocks. Finding of this study are play an important role in the improvement and conservation of Indigenous cattle through government policies.