Dairy Production in an Urbanising Environment: A Social-Ecological Approach to Understand the Case of Bengaluru

As urban and rural worlds are increasingly pervaded by urban development, urban livestock husbandry is often considered as a phase-out model. Bengaluru is a fast-growing megacity in South India, where cows are a common sight everywhere. To understand the presence of cows throughout the rural–urban interface of Bengaluru, a baseline survey was carried out with 337 dairy producers. In terms of socio-economic profile of the dairy producers and dairy practices, the dairy sector was homogenous in the entire study region. Urban and some rural producers relied on public lands for pasture and fodder supply to deal with the constraint of land competition. Moreover, cows are part of a complex social-ecological system, providing multiple services to dairy producers, the consumers and the society in general.