From the archive record
A pretty Maldhari woman herds her buffalos out of the yard. A herd of Indian rural Buffaloes that have been mainly bred for meat and milk, within the Maldhari community around Gir National Park in Gujarat, at the edge of the Indian Lion's last territory. The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in the Indian Subcontinent, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa, and elsewhere. In 2000, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated there were approximately 158 million water buffalo in the world, with 97% of them (approximately 153 million animals) in Asia. There are established feral populations in northern Australia, but the dwindling true wild popu