Long way to go to conserve wild water buffaloes | Janaki Lenin

The government is funding wild water buffalo conservation, but armed rebels overrun its habitat and much work needs to be done to protect the species

Prakash Javadekar, minister of environment and forests, announced Indian rupees 200m (2m) for the conservation of five endangered species, including the water buffalo, on 8 July 2015. This effort is the latest to aid the recovery of the bovine species.

India is the world's largest exporter of beef, and meat of domestic water buffaloes called carabeef make up all of it. However, the fate of their wild progenitor has been on a long downhill slide. According to the IUCN red list, the species was once found across Asia, and is now confined to India, Nepal, and a few countries in South-east Asia.