Cloning overcomes prejudices

The development and popularisation of this technology can be a boon for the Indian livestock sector, which relies heavily on buffalo milk

Ever since the creation of the first cloned mammal — sheep named Dolly — at the Roslin Institute in Scotland on July 5, 1996, countless genetically exact copies of various animals have been generated the world over. But only a few countries have adopted cloning as a means of developing elite populations of commercially important livestock species to enhance their productivity and market value. India, where livestock rather than crop farming forms the mainstay of the livelihood of small and marginal farmers and landless rural people, has done so quite successfully, chiefly in the case of buffaloes. Workable indigenous cloning