First Badri Cattle Calf Born Through OPU-IVF at GB Pant University, Uttarakhand

🗞️ Why in News The first Badri cattle calf born through Ovum Pick-Up and In Vitro Fertilisation (OPU-IVF) technology was delivered on 11 September 2026 at the Academic Dairy Farm of GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GBPUAT), Pantnagar, in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The female calf was born after a Badri embryo was transferred into a Sahiwal recipient cow. The programme is a collaboration between ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (ICAR-NDRI), Karnal, and GBPUAT Pantnagar, funded by the Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council, and was initiated in 2023 under the then Vice-Chancellor of GBPUAT, Dr M S Chauhan. Badri is an important indigenous cattle genetic resource of Uttarakhand and is the first Uttarakhand-origin cattle breed to be registered with the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) in 2016.

The Milestone in One Table

What OPU-IVF Actually Does

Ovum Pick-Up (OPU) is a transvaginal, ultrasound-guided technique by which oocytes (immature eggs) are aspirated from the ovarian follicles of a live donor cow. The procedure is non-surgical, does not require the donor to be superovulated, and can be repeated at short intervals across the donor’s productive life.

In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) takes those oocytes through in vitro maturation (IVM), fertilises them with cryopreserved semen from a genetically superior sire, and cultures the resulting zygotes to the blastocyst stage in the laboratory over roughly seven days.

Embryo transfer then places the developed blastocyst into the uterus of a recipient cow in appropriate oestrus synchronisation, so that the pregnancy is carried in the recipient. In the Pantnagar case, the donor is a Badri cow, the semen is from a superior Badri bull, and the recipient is a Sahiwal cow. The calf inherits Badri genetics, not the recipient’s genetics.

The advantage over conventional artificial insemination is throughput: a single genetically superior donor can produce dozens of offspring per year through OPU-IVF, against one calf per year through natural service or straightforward AI. That matters when the population of the donor breed is small, as is the case with Badri.

Badri Cattle: The Breed at Risk

Badri, also called Pahari or Desi Pahari, is the first registered indigenous cattle breed of Uttarakhand, native to the hill districts of the state including Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri, Almora, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar and Pauri. It is a small-sized, hardy, hill-adapted breed with long legs suited to steep terrain, low feed requirements, and body colour ranging across black, brown, red, white and grey.

Milk yield. The lactation milk yield of a Badri cow is 547 to 657 kg per lactation, with an average milk fat content of about 4 per cent. That is modest by exotic-cross-bred standards but the milk carries high solids-not-fat and, per state government promotional material, medicinal value linked to the herb and shrub diet in high pastures.

NBAGR registration. In 2016, Badri became the first Uttarakhand-origin cattle breed to be certified by the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal. India’s total count of NBAGR-registered indigenous cattle breeds has since grown; the count is periodically updated, and Badri sits within that list.

Conservation infrastructure. The Badri Cattle Breeding Centre, established at Nariyal village of Champawat district in 2012, is the state-level conservation node. The Uttarakhand Livestock Development Board oversees breed conservation.

Why OPU-IVF for a Hill Breed?

Conservation of an at-risk hill breed with a small effective population runs into a series of biological and logistical constraints that OPU-IVF is designed to sidestep.

Small effective population. A small population means a small pool of unrelated breeding animals, which means inbreeding pressure. OPU-IVF lets breeders combine oocytes and semen from geographically dispersed donors and sires into a single laboratory pipeline, and to preserve the resulting blastocysts by cryopreservation for later transfer.

Hard-to-reach terrain. Traditional AI requires a technician to be at the donor’s location at the right point in the oestrus cycle. In hill districts, that field logistics is expensive. Under OPU-IVF, the oocyte-collection appointment is once every few weeks, at a research facility.

Multiplication of genetically superior donors. A single genetically superior Badri cow can, through OPU-IVF, produce far more calves than through natural service. That accelerates the improvement of milk yield within-breed, without introducing exotic genes.

Preservation as an insurance stock. Oocytes, semen and blastocysts can be cryopreserved, essentially creating a genetic bank of the breed that can be drawn on decades later. That is the same architecture as seed banks for at-risk plant cultivars.

The National Framework: Rashtriya Gokul Mission

The Pantnagar milestone sits within the wider policy framework of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), launched by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in December 2014. RGM’s stated objectives are:

• Development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds, including cattle and buffalo.
• Genetic upgradation through selective breeding and use of superior sires.
• Enhancement of milk production and productivity in indigenous animals.
• Distribution of disease-free high-genetic-merit bulls for natural service.
• Institutional support through Gokul Grams and National Kamdhenu Breeding Centres.

Under RGM, IVF and embryo-transfer laboratories have been established in several states, and government subsidy is available for embryo-transfer procedures on farmer animals. The Nationwide Artificial Insemination Programme (NAIP) provides free AI services at the farmer’s doorstep.

RGM has since continued through the 2021-26 cycle, and in March 2025 the Union Cabinet approved a revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission with a total outlay of Rs 3,400 crore. The Pantnagar milestone matters because it applies reproductive biotechnology to a small-population hill breed rather than to a high-yield milch breed.

The Wider Context: Which Indigenous Cattle Breeds Are Registered

India’s indigenous cattle breeds are catalogued by the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal, which is under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. NBAGR-registered breeds include:

• Milch breeds: Gir (Gujarat), Sahiwal (Punjab/Haryana), Red Sindhi (originally Sindh), Rathi (Rajasthan), Tharparkar (Rajasthan), Deoni (Maharashtra/Karnataka).
• Draught breeds: Kangayam (Tamil Nadu), Hallikar (Karnataka), Amritmahal (Karnataka), Khillari (Maharashtra/Karnataka), Nagori (Rajasthan), Bachaur (Bihar).
• Dual-purpose breeds: Hariana (Haryana), Ongole (Andhra Pradesh), Krishna Valley (Karnataka), Kankrej (Gujarat/Rajasthan).
• Hill and small breeds: Badri (Uttarakhand), Kherigarh (Uttar Pradesh), Lakhimi (Assam), Punganur (Andhra Pradesh, one of the world’s shortest cattle breeds).

The list is periodically expanded as new breeds are formally identified and registered.

The Institutional Ecology

ICAR-NDRI, Karnal. The National Dairy Research Institute is a deemed university and India’s premier dairy-science institute. It is credited with several firsts in India’s dairy science, including the first cloned buffalo calf (“Garima”) in 2009. It has an established programme in bovine embryo-transfer technology.

GBPUAT, Pantnagar. The Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, founded in 1960, is India’s first agricultural university and a foundational institution of the Green Revolution. Its Academic Dairy Farm is a working farm attached to teaching and research; the Badri OPU-IVF programme sits there.

Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council. The Uttarakhand Council for Biotechnology (UCB), headquartered at Haldi, is the state’s nodal biotechnology body. It funded the OPU-IVF programme.

UPSC Relevance

GS Paper 3. Science and technology, developments and applications, biotechnology and reproductive technologies in agriculture; agriculture and allied sectors; conservation of biological resources.

Prelims mapping. Badri is Uttarakhand’s first NBAGR-registered indigenous cattle breed. (Uttarakhand’s state animal is the Alpine musk deer, not a cattle breed.) OPU-IVF is a distinct technique from cloning (somatic-cell nuclear transfer) and from conventional AI. NDRI Karnal and GBPUAT Pantnagar are its executing institutions.

A question worth preparing. “Assess the potential and constraints of Ovum Pick-Up and In Vitro Fertilisation (OPU-IVF) as a tool for the conservation and genetic improvement of India’s at-risk indigenous cattle breeds. (150 words)”

📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia

Prelims, statement-ready facts:

• The first Badri cattle calf born through OPU-IVF was delivered on 11 September 2026 at GBPUAT Pantnagar.
• The programme is a collaboration between ICAR-NDRI, Karnal and GBPUAT Pantnagar, funded by the Uttarakhand Biotechnology Council.
• The donor is a Badri cow, the sire is a Badri bull and the recipient is a Sahiwal cow.
• Badri is the first Uttarakhand-origin cattle breed registered with NBAGR (2016).
• NBAGR is at Karnal, under ICAR and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Lactation milk yield of Badri: 547-657 kg; milk fat: about 4 per cent.
• The Badri Cattle Breeding Centre is at Nariyal, Champawat, established in 2012.
• Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) was launched in December 2014 by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
• GBPUAT Pantnagar (1960) is India’s first agricultural university.
• ICAR-NDRI Karnal produced India’s first cloned buffalo calf (“Garima”) in 2009.

Prelims, the traps:

• OPU-IVF is not cloning. Cloning is somatic-cell nuclear transfer; the calf’s genome is a copy of the donor’s. OPU-IVF is sexual reproduction; the calf’s genome is a new combination of donor egg and sire semen.
• The recipient cow’s genetics are not transmitted to the calf; the recipient carries the pregnancy but the calf inherits from the donor and the sire only. This is a common misconception.
• NBAGR is at Karnal, not at Bhopal, not at Delhi. It is under ICAR.
• RGM was launched in December 2014, not in 2019; a revised RGM (outlay Rs 3,400 crore) was approved in March 2025.
• Badri is a hill cattle breed, not a buffalo breed and not a cross-bred exotic.
• Uttarakhand’s state animal is the Alpine musk deer, not the Badri cow.

Mains, arguments and keywords:

• Reproductive biotechnology for indigenous breed conservation: OPU, IVF, embryo transfer, cryopreservation, genetic bank.
• Small-population dynamics: inbreeding pressure, effective population size, genetic bottleneck.
• Rashtriya Gokul Mission: extending reproductive biotechnology from high-yield milch breeds to small-population hill breeds.
• Milk-productivity-versus-adaptability trade-off: high-yield exotics versus hardy indigenous breeds.
• Keywords: OPU, IVF, embryo transfer, cryopreservation, NBAGR, RGM, Gokul Gram, National Kamdhenu Breeding Centre, LiFE.

Interview, be ready for:

• “What is the difference between OPU-IVF and cloning?” OPU-IVF is sexual reproduction with in vitro fertilisation of oocytes and embryo transfer to a recipient; the calf’s genome is a new combination of donor and sire. Cloning is asexual and produces a genetic copy of the donor.
• “Why prioritise a low-yield hill breed such as Badri over a high-yield exotic?” Adaptation to hill terrain, tolerance of low-quality feed, disease resistance, low input cost, and cultural ownership by hill communities. A high-yield exotic in a hill village is a high-morbidity animal that cannot pay for itself.
• “How would you rebalance Rashtriya Gokul Mission to serve small-population hill breeds better?” Ring-fenced budget lines for state-nominated at-risk breeds, embedded IVF and embryo-transfer facilities in state-agricultural universities, subsidy on embryo-transfer procedures at farmer level, and a decadal target for hill-breed population and yield.

Sources: PIB, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, ICAR, NBAGR, GKToday

Source: First Badri Cattle Calf Born Through OPU-IVF at GB Pant University, Uttarakhand — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Current Affairs