For the last two years, the cow has been at the top of the news cycle in India for reasons ranging from assaults on people on charges of cow smuggling, slaughter and beef consumption to aggressive efforts towards conservation of the bovine species by Central and state governments as well as vigilante groups. Now, camels find themselves in a similar spotlight. The Forest and Environment Ministry’s ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter in livestock markets across the country, which was announced on May 23, includes camels.
Rajasthan accounts for 82% of India’s camel population, though the animal is also found in the Kutch district of Gujarat while a minuscule number of the “critically endangered” Bactrian (two-humped) species occupies some pockets of Jammu and Kashmir. But their numbers have been dwindling. In 2012, India had 400,000 camels compared to nearly 1,000,000 in 1992.
In Rajasthan, the Centre’s recent ban overlaps with a similar law that has existed for two years. In 2015, one year after Rajasthan declared the camel its “state animal”, the state Assembly passed, and later enacted, the Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Bill. The Bill not only forbids the slaughter of camels and their sale for slaughter (at any place, including cattle markets and livestock fairs) but also their transport outside the state.
The Bill was introduced following concern over the rapidly depleting camel population in Rajasthan and reports of rampant smuggling of the animal ahead of the festival of Bakr Eid, during which they are sacrificed in several parts of the country. But after the passage of the Bill, camel trade in the state hit a major bump.
Scroll.in spoke with a leading camel herder from Rajasthan’s Raika community, an activist protesting the ban on behalf of nomadic groups that rear livestock for a living, an activist who has been fighting animal slaughter for years, and the scientist heading the National Research Centre on Camel in Bikaner to seek their views on the Centre’s latest initiative. While they all agreed that this would strengthen the existing ban on the sale and transport of cattle in Rajasthan, they differed on what it would eventually lead to.
“Ask any camel herder,” said Ummed Singh, the camel herder. “Such bans, which are supposed to be for the conservation of camels in India, will end up depleting camels [and driving them] to extinction.”
Limited avenues
Singh listed the reasons why a ban would not work. The first problem, he pointed out, is utility. With modernisation, camels are no longer needed for transportation, agriculture and border patrolling, leaving just three uses for them – slaughter, milk, and the tourism industry.
“Camel slaughter is more of a religious affair and the demand generates largely ahead of Bakr Eid,” Singh explained. “When it comes to milk, the state government has failed to establish any mechanism for its collection and marketing. And the tourism industry can only absorb a small fraction of the existing camel population.”
The second problem is food. A fodder crisis in Rajasthan means that herders often have to travel to neighbouring states, and at times even farther, in search of grazing land. “The new rules have a provision under which the herder has to take permission from an officer of additional district magistrate rank and give a count of the camels before crossing the territories of the state for feeding them,” he said. “On returning, they have to report again and subject the camels to a medical examination. Any camel found unhealthy can be confiscated until it is considered fit. Which poor camel herder can afford that? And, why will he do it if he does not get to earn anything in return for such a labour-intensive exercise?”
The third problem is a skewed sex ratio among camels that, Singh said, has gradually increased in the last two decades. “Male camels get aggressive during mating season [winter’s peak] and can even attack herders if they intervene in a fight between two males,” he said, recalling an instance when a camel killed a herder and trampled his body for three days. “No herder can afford surplus male camels in a herd and they have to be sold off.”
He added, “But now there is practically no market, and we can no longer cater to the demands of other states for ploughing fields [in Haryana and Punjab] or for slaughter. What do we do with our camels, both male and female?”
Is research the way out?
According to MV Patil, director of the National Research Centre on Camel, male camels can be used for various purposes and selling them for slaughter is not the only way out.
“When it comes to male camels, we are working on two specific projects – one on their use in the generation of alternate energy that can be utilised in remote areas, and the other on utilising their nano-antibodies to develop detection modules for a wide range of diseases, including tuberculosis and cancer,” he explained.
However, Patil said their research had hit a hurdle. “The problem is that camel herders, though they are in distress, tend not to give their camels for research. And why would they? For that, they have to be given sufficient incentives.”
On female camels, the centre has done a lot of research on the nutritional value of their milk. But here too, Patil said, the state government has failed to develop a collection and marketing mechanism.
“Camel milk is high in nutrition and can help patients of diabetes and children with autism,” he said. “All the camel milk produced in the state can be sold provided the government invests in a collection and marketing system. Though it should not be treated like ordinary cow milk and should be priced higher for its nutritional value.”
Patil said the ban announced by the Central government would help curb the smuggling of camels – to Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and even Bangladesh – which continues despite the enactment of the 2015 law.
‘Protect herders to save camels’
Varda Mehrotra, director of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, echoed Patil’s view on the new law fortifying the existing one. But she disagreed with his take on camel milk as an alternative source of income.
“Distressed camel herders need alternative means of livelihood and not alternative means of exploiting an animal they depend on,” she said. “Over the years, we have seen the dairy industry is equally torturous to animals and once camel milk becomes a profit-making deal, camels will be subjected to the same torture as cows and buffaloes. This is a very difficult area in which the state government has to immediately step in.”
According to Paras Banjara, a Rajasthan-based activist protesting the state ban on behalf of various nomadic groups, the only way to tackle the fall in the camel population is by protecting herders. “Why will a camel herder conserve the animal and invest in it for no benefit?” he asked. “We have seen the camel milk idea to have failed, for whatever reasons. So at the end of the day, he has to be able to sell his camels.”
He added, “The 2015 law in Rajasthan shrunk the market and the new prohibition enacted by the Centre will only strengthen the existing ban, diminishing the market space further. Camel herders are losing interest in camel rearing out of sheer helplessness and the new law will finish them off.”