An Introduction to Buffaloes

[River Buffaloes]

Wow! I have never had to face anything like that! My sister lives close to a river and I have begged her to move, but she stays. In Hurricane Harvey a couple of years ago, she took 7 feet of water in her house. She, her husband and their dogs were rescued by boat from their 2nd story window. Her house suffered a lot of damage, she got it all redone, but she is not in good health, her husband died this year and I wish she would move to high ground.

To understand the true scale of destruction you will have to see the pictures. There's no high ground in Bihar. Embankments that are supposed to stop the rivers from overflowing are the only place where we can take refuge.

 

[Bruce]

scary!

 

[Baymule]

How deep do the floods get?

 

[River Buffaloes]

How deep do the floods get?

The floods aren't usually deep at most places, but it really depends on how far you are from the river. Again in the flood you can't see things like ponds and check dams etc so navigating through a flood is a risky proposition. In 2008 I don't remember exactly, but around 150 people were washed away in a single incidence. People where not expecting the flood, the river had not flown through that path for more than a century.

 

[Baymule]

I lived in hurricane country most of my life. Hurricanes and tropical storms bring lots of rain and floods in low lying areas. Wind does lots of damage, plus tornadoes. Coastal areas get wiped off the face of the earth. The only damage we ever had was an ancient oak tree that fell on the house, smashing one end. Most of the time it was no electricity for weeks, grocery stores stripped of everything. That didn't bother me, we had a small generator that kept the freezer and refrigerator going. the rest i can deal with.

Staying in a flood to look after the buffalo is the mark of true love for the animals you care for. Well done. It had to be a miserable experience, staying wet and cold, for the love of the buffalo in your care, you stayed.

 

[River Buffaloes]

I lived in hurricane country most of my life. Hurricanes and tropical storms bring lots of rain and floods in low lying areas. Wind does lots of damage, plus tornadoes. Coastal areas get wiped off the face of the earth. The only damage we ever had was an ancient oak tree that fell on the house, smashing one end. Most of the time it was no electricity for weeks, grocery stores stripped of everything. That didn't bother me, we had a small generator that kept the freezer and refrigerator going. the rest i can deal with.

Staying in a flood to look after the buffalo is the mark of true love for the animals you care for. Well done. It had to be a miserable experience, staying wet and cold, for the love of the buffalo in your care, you stayed.

Our problem is that in North Bihar, you are never too far from a big perennial river. These rivers have two sources of water, the melting of ice in Nepalese Himalayas and heavy orthographic rainfall caused by High mountains blocking the South Western monsoon winds from moving North and forcing them to shed all their water on the Southern slope of the Himalayas. This causes causes the massive Rain shadow system resulting in floodplains in India and dry arid climate in Tibet and Mongolia. You don't have this effect in North America because both Rockies and the Appalachian mountains run North to South.

Yes, men usually stay back for the animals. My grandmother gave me a buffalo after the flood. You can see food packages being thrown from the Indian airforce helicopters on embankments for the few men who decided to stay. This picture is from 2020 Bihar floods.

 

[Bruce]

I'm glad they do the supply drops! I wonder if that would even happen here.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Moving on I have heard that mozzarella has become the most popular cheese in the States beating the cheddar by some 2 pounds. But is that really an authentic mozzarella?

 

[River Buffaloes]

I would also like to know that why does people only think about mozzarella cheese when they think about buffalo milk? You can substitute cow's milk with buffalo milk and every cheese will turn out to be more rich, more creamy and more white.

Buffalo milk can also substitute cow's milk in the glass. It is more flavorful and rich and healthy. And what about other milk products that can be made from Buffalo milk like yoghurt, icecream, gelato, paneer, butter and ghee? They all turn out to be of a superior quality than one made from cows milk.

 

[Bruce]

What defines "authentic" mozzarella"? I know that Italy is very protective of its Parmigiana cheese name. If it isn't made THERE is isn't authentic. I understand that mozzarella is pretty easy for people to make at home, nothing special needed and no months or years of aging in caves

I don't know anything about buffalo milk being made into cheese, as you know there are effectively no dairy buffaloes in the USA. In fact I would guess that very few people (like most of us until you started posting all the wonderful information) here in the USA know anything at all about the existence of river buffaloes. We know about American Bison/Buffalo. Some are "farmed" and there are places you can buy bison meat though I've never heard of anyone milking a bison.