I took this photo on a 24-hour house boat trip through the backwaters of Kerala (near Alleppey). It shows a duckherd going about his business of driving the flock towards their overnight shelter. We had never seen such a thing, but nobody else seemed particularly surprised. Duck breeding is big business in the area and the locals must see sights like this on a daily basis.
Below are a few more shots I took while we were alongside the man and his ducks.
I don’t know for sure, but I think that the ducks are probably bred for their meat. Having said that, I did not once see duck on any of the menus here. The destination markets, however, might be elsewhere in India or even abroad.
Do you know if they use the duck’s eggs, or whether they’re harvest for their meat?
In Bali I watched from my rented house in the rice paddies as ducks were regularly brought to the fields to eat insects and fertilize the crop. Not to say they don’t eat them, too, but probably a similar routine in So. India.