Gayal
The semi-wild domestic bovine of Northeast India, Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh, descended from the gaur.
Also: mithun, Bos frontalis, methun
The gayal, called mithun in India, is the domestic form of the gaur, the large wild ox of South and Southeast Asia. It is kept mainly in the hill forests of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, and in neighbouring parts of Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Yunnan. Mithun are usually left to roam the forest and come back to their owners for salt. Among many communities of the Northeast they are a measure of wealth, given as bride price and offered at feasts and ceremonies rather than milked. The mithun is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, and India keeps a national research centre for the animal in Nagaland.