This study was undertaken with the goal of improving the Indian dairy sector by enhancing knowledge and skill among dairy farmers on animal health care; thereby enabling increased productivity and minimizing economic loss. The study focused on members of milk co-operative societies of Kannur district, Kerala, India. Though the milk co-operatives were organized institutions, they lacked much needed knowledge and skill enhancement of their member-farmers. Most rural households in Kerala own television sets and DVD players. Hence, an educational interactive video-DVD on dairy health management practices was considered as an appropriate medium to disseminate knowledge on dairy health management practices to them. Sixty dairy farmers owning a DVD player and a television were selected as the sample population for study by means of proportionate random sampling among four milk co-operative societies identified in Kannur block. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the respondents possessed medium level of knowledge at the pre-exposure stage, while in the post-exposure stage, a majority rose to the high knowledge category. The respondents who had low knowledge regarding various livestock diseases, their causes, symptoms, prevention and control gained considerable knowledge after exposure to the educational interactive video-DVD. The difference observed between the mean scores of knowledge level of respondents in pre and post-exposure stages was found to be statistically significant

Aim:The aim of this work was to study the tolerance level of farmers toward different human-wildlife conflict (HWC) situations.Materials and Methods:This study was conducted in 24 villages of nine blocks from Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Erode, and Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu by personally interviewing 240 farmers affected with four different HWC situations such as human-elephant conflict (HEC), human-wild pig conflict (HPC), human-gaur conflict (HGC), and human-monkey conflict (HMC). A scale developed for this purpose was used to find out the tolerance level of the farmers.Results:In general, the majority (61.70%) of the farmers had medium level of tolerance toward HWC, whereas 25.40% and 12.90% belonged to a high and low category, respectively. The mean tolerance level of the farmer’s encountering HMC is low (8.77) among the other three wild animal conflicts. In tackling HWC, the majority (55.00%) of the HEC farmers drove the elephant once it entered into their farmland. In the HPC, more than three-fourths of the respondents drove away the wild pig once they were found in farmlands. With regard to the HMC, a less number of them (1.70%) drove the monkey away if monkeys were spotted in their village. With regard to HGC, 95.00% of the respondents frightened the gaurs if their family members were threatened by gaurs.Conclusion:The present study suggests that that majority of the farmers had medium level of tolerance toward HWC. The tolerance level of the HMC farmers was lower than other three HWC affected farmers. This study emphasizes the need for necessary training to tackle the problem in an effective manner for wild animal conservation.

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