Dear Sudhanshu Pandey et al.,

thank you for providing a response to the points raised by two independent reviewers. Following their assessment and your response, I invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript and would like to stress that particularly the points made in relation to livestock and manure are taken up in these revisions. I recognise that your response mentions the cattle numbers already, yet it leaves the point on manure emissions completely untouched.

I am looking forward receiving the revised manuscript

all the best

Lutz Merbold

Dear Sudhanshu Pandey et al.

thank you for submitting your revised version of your manuscript. I have recognised that you aimed at addressing the two points of animal emissions (both from enteric fermentation as well as from manure) in the new document. While I can accept the simple approach of using emission factors, I think your argumentation is a bit too minor here.
For manure management you refer to a large cattle population and the emissions factor of 1kg CH4 per head per year. Yet there is no mentioning of the consequences of the manure from small ruminants and other animals (see my next comment).
Similarly, I am okay with the statement that the emissions from cattle and small ruminants (you state the number of animals) cause approx. 0.63Tg CH4 yr due to enteric fermentation. When we talk about the SSWR one definitely also needs to mention large wild herbivores. The region is home to millions of antelopes etc. and for the completeness of the paper this should be mentioned.
Certainly, including this information is unlikely to change the results presented, yet this is important information.
Thus, kindly submit a revised version of the manuscript which addresses the remaining raised points.

with kind regards

Lutz Merbold

Dear Sudhanshu Pandey et al.,

Thank you for providing your revised response which covers the topic sufficiently. With this I am happy to inform you about the full acceptance of your paper in Biogeosciences.

all the best

Lutz Merbold