Scientists develop health tracker for high-altitude yaks

Published 7 July 2026 · science

A team of scientists has developed an Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart system to monitor the health of the high-altitude yaks and keep tabs on

A team of scientists has developed an Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart system to monitor the health of the high-altitude yaks and keep tabs on their movement near the international border in the Himalayas. The Indian yak (Bos grunniens), often called the ‘ship of the Himalayas’, is an integral paarunart of the economy of mountain dwellers, who depend on it for meat, milk, and transportation. Found at altitudes above 8,000 feet, this bovine animal has long been recognised for its resilience and adaptability to extreme conditions. According to the 20th Livestock Census, India has about 58,000 yaks, almost half of them in Ladakh.

The rest are found in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Monitoring the health of the yaks across the tough Himalayan expanse has literally been an uphill task. Yak specialists and brokpas (yak farmers) also face challenges due to livestock movement in difficult-to-access areas near the international border. Geo-fencing and monitoring The newly developed technology — a device attached to an animal collar — seeks to reduce these hurdles, according to Mihir Sarkar, director of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s Research Centre on Yak (NRC-Y) at Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh He is one of four NRC-Y scientists — the others are Mokhtar Hussain, Vijay Paul, and Dinamani Medhi — who developed the device, along with Rupesh Mandal, Nupur Choudhury, Gitu Das, and Jyoti Kumar Barman from the Guwahati-based Assam Don Bosco University.

The scientists said that this IoT-based smart system for geo-fencing and monitoring the health of yaks and predicting the stress they undergo is designed to address the challenges of yak management in remote, high-altitude regions, where continuous physical monitoring of animals is often difficult. IoT is a network of physical objects embedded with sensors, software, and connectivity technologies, allowing gadgets and machines to collect, exchange data, and act automatically without human intervention. Geo-fencing is the use of GPS, Wi-Fi, or cellular data to create a virtual boundary around a physical location. High-altitude herd management “Yaks are a vital livelihood resource for communities living in the high-altitude Himalayan region.

However, yak farmers often face issues in tracking animal movement, detecting health problems at an early stage, and managing herds spread across vast grazing landscapes, often wandering to areas difficult to access,” Mr. Sarkar said. “The newly developed technology can assist farmers by providing timely information on animal health, stress levels, and movement patterns, enabling better decision-making in day-to-day herd management and ensuring timely veterinary intervention whenever required,” he said.