Studies on migration of sheep flocks in north coastal zone of Andhra Pradesh: Identification of traditional migratory tracts

A study on 698 migratory sheep flocks in the North costal zone revealed existence of 16 traditional migratory routes. The traditional migratory tracts originated from native villages of sheep flocks moving across river beds, forest areas, foot of the Eastern Ghats and touched the Orissa state border. The mean duration and distance of migration of flocks were 181.25±0.63 days and 75.87±0.78 km, respectively. The migration mostly started in the mid-December and extended up to mid-July. The major reasons for migration were lack of feed resources (92.70%), income from penning (92.39), traditional practice (87.50%), successive droughts (84.37%) and lack of water resources (83.33%). The major problems during migration included disease outbreaks (85.95%) and lack of veterinary facilities (83.81%).