The 'Bhole Muj"-Water Buffaloe

The world’s buffaloes are classified into two groups – the Asian and the African. The Asian buffalo is called Bubalus and consists of three species – the anoa of Celebes, the tamaro of Mindori and the arni or Indian wild buffalo. Bubalus bubalis is the name of the domesticated wild Indian buffalo, previously called B. arnee. There are two general types of the domesticated buffalo, B. bubalis, - the river buffalo and the swamp buffalo.
The African buffalo is named Syncerus with a single species S. caffer, with a small number of sub-species. The African buffalo has not been domesticated and will not be discussed further.
The B. Bubalis is widely distributed in Asia, but it has also been introduced to Europe, Near East, China, South America, the former Soviet Union and the Caribbean. The world population of buffaloes is 149 million (FAO, 1994), of these, 144 million live in Asia. Over half the worlds buffalo population is in India – more than 75 million animals in northern India and Pakistan, buffaloes for milk production have been selected to a large extent.