Keepers protest as camel utility dips
DEMAND TO SAVE ANIMAL No outside buyers; breeders call for revoking legislation that bans the sale of camels outside the state
PUSHKAR: The sprawling mela ground in Pushkar, nestled amid the Aravallis, is dotted with hundreds of camels, serenely chewing fodder and blissfully unaware that their survival hangs in the balance.
The Pushkar fair, the most prominent cattle fairs in Rajasthan, is for the first time seeing protests by the nomadic Raika or Rabari tribals, the traditional camel keepers of Rajasthan. They say they cannot sustain their camel herds and want a 2015 legislation that bans the sale of camels outside the state to be revoked.
Pushkar, situated about 150 km south west of Jaipur, attracts tourists from India and abroad during the annual week-long Pushkar cattle fair and cultural carnival and is a major revenue earner.
This time, the fair is being held from November 4 to 12.
There are virtually no buyers from outside Rajasthan in Pushkar and camel prices have declined sharply, says Hanwant Singh, director of the Lokhit Pashupalak Sansthan, a Palibased organisation that is working for camel conservation.
He says earlier buyers used to come from Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Hyderabad to purchase camels for agriculture purposes or for slaughter.
Unhappy at the situation, the Raikas had threatened a protest but the government acted swiftly and sent a team of officials led by the animal husbandry department director Shailesh Sharma to talk to the agitated cattle rearers. Hanwant Singh and a local priest of the Rabari community, Raghunath Maharaj, led the talks with the administration.
“Raikas are a backward com
CAMEL BREEDERS SEE LITTLE USE FOR THE ANIMALS WITH NEW MODES OF TRANSPORT AND A RAPID DECLINE IN GRAZING LAND
munity and have no other means of livelihood, no land. The government should earmark grazing areas in the state for camels and allow sale of male camels so that the herders can earn some money and continue to conserve camels,” Raghunath Maharaj told the officials
Other demands included developing camel milk cooperatives and payment of ~50 per litre of milk to producers and availability of free medicines for treatment of diseases. Sharma assured the camel herders that higher authorities would be apprised of their demands and action would be taken.
The Pushkar fair used to be a commercial hub for buyers and sellers mainly of camels and horses. But since the 2015 legislation brought by the BJP government aimed at arresting the steady decline in the camel population by restricting migration of the animals to other states, the camel trade has crashed.
“We used to get between Rs20,000 to ~50,000 for camels then. However now we are getting ~3000 to ~6,000,” said Amaan Raika, who trekked six days with a herd of camels from Chhetriya village in Pali district.
“I once s ol d a c amel f or ~50,000,” he recalls. This time he came with a herd of 50 camels but hasn’t been able to sell even one so far.
Badri Lal Raika, who came from Sand village in Bhilwara district, was luckier and managed to sell five of his 60 camels for between ~5,000 and ~7,000.
Jagdish Chandra Rabari has brought 15 female camels from Udaipur district, said, “We are facing a lot of hardship. It is expensive to look after a camel. We have to take it for grazing, take care of its health, provide medicines. If we are not able to sell camels, we have no other means of earning money.”
Camels have been a victim of modernisation and lost their utility, says Samir Kumar Ghoriu, principal scientist at the National Research Center on Camel (NRCC), situated in Bikaner.
“At NRCC we are exploring ways to encourage camel rearing. Camel milk is one such idea. Until camels become a means of income for the breeders, they will not rear them, he said.
In the past, camels were used for transportation, for milk and even for farming. Since large tracts of land were free, they were able to graze freely. With development of modes of transport, increase in population and more land being irrigated and used for agriculture, the grazing land has diminished and camel breeders see little use of the animal till it can become economically viable, said Rollefson.
Ilse Kohler-rollefson who has been working for camel conservation in Rajasthan since the past three decades, says the government should give some incentives to the camel keepers such as supporting camel milk production and marketing.
Rollefson has set up a small camel milk dairy in Kumbhalgarh which produces 50-60 litres of milk per day. “There is growing interest and demand for camel milk which Rajasthan can cater
to. Camel milk is supposed to be beneficial in diabetes and for autistic children,” she said.
From 1.5 million camels in the 1980, Rajasthan’s camel population has dwindled to around 2.1 lakh, per the 2017 livestock census which showed a 35 percent decline in the population over the 2012 census.
The camel herders are also demanding financial assistance from the government. The previous BJP government had brought in a Ushtra Vikas Yojana in 2016 whereby it gave a subsidy of ~10,000 to each camel breeder over a period of 18 months for each camel calf born.
The Congress government had stopped the scheme. Independent MLA from Marwar Junction, Khushveer Singh, who was present in the meeting said the government should increase the subsidy to ~30,000 for each calf born.