New Delhi: This month, the Rajasthan government plans to restart the Ushtra Vikas Yojana, a development scheme for camels, to combat the massive decline in the animal’s population in the state over the last few decades.
Rajasthan, home to 86 per cent of India’s camels, has seen a fall in their numbers right from 1951 onwards, but between 2007 and 2019, their population halved — the 20th livestock census in 2019 reported that the camel population in Rajasthan was 2.13 lakh, down from 4.22 lakh in 2017.
Across India too, camel numbers have been declining since 1991, when the country had more than a million of them, and Rajasthan alone had 7.46 lakh. In 2019, the all-India figure was 2.5 lakh, at a time when global figures are increasing, and Pakistan alone has 12 lakh camels.
Breeders and camel experts now worry that a 2016 Rajasthan government law, general apathy and rural modernisation may lead to the ‘ship of the desert’ becoming a zoo animal in the future.
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Camel development, or lack thereof
In 2014, the Rajasthan government declared the camel as the state animal, and in 2015-16, it started the Ushtra Vikas Yojana to provide a livelihood to breeders.
But this hasn’t arrested the fall in the camel numbers. In the recent budget session of the Rajasthan assembly, Ameen Khan, MLA for the ruling Congress party, asked the Ashok Gehlot government about its efforts to stop the decline in the population of camels. Animal Husbandry Minister Lalchand Kataria said his department had constituted a committee to look into the matter, and he himself was heading the committee.
Kataria also said the department has sent a proposal for a new scheme to the finance department, and admitted on record that the camel has become “irrelevant” in recent times, and farmers are abandoning them in jungles.
A worried Lok-hit Pashu Palak Sansthan, an animal body of 8,000 breeders, had written a letter to Chief Minister Gehlot in November 2020 to provide a solution. The letter stated that in the absence of dialogue and response from the government, the breeders will leave their camels with district collectors.
The growing anger among breeder and animal bodies led the state animal husbandry department to call a meeting last month to discuss the issue. The meeting was attended by the director of ICAR-National Research Centre on Camel, NGOs, breeders, and officials from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
Those who attended the meeting raised serious concerns, in particular, over the Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 2015, which was enacted the next year by the Vasundhara Raje-headed BJP government.
The prohibition Act
The ‘prohibition Act’, as it is commonly known, regulates the temporary migration and export of camels from Rajasthan. According to the Act, no person shall export any camel himself, through an agent or servant or any other person within the state and outside the state, for the purpose of slaughtering or with the knowledge that it may likely be slaughtered.
Temporary migration in case of scarcity and famine is allowed within the state or outside the state under this Act, but a competent authority has to allow it.
The competent authorities are allowed to give a permit to allow export from Rajasthan for agricultural dairy farming purposes, and for participating in fairs. But without such permits, the Act also makes the transporter of the animal(s) guilty of abetment, and liable for punishment.
Hanwant Singh Rathore, director of the Lok-hit Pashu Palak Sansthan, alleged, “This law was enacted because of pressure from animal welfare bodies. Many family members of bureaucrats are part of such bodies. If they turn vegan, they want to ban every meat. Those who don’t have the slightest idea of the rural agro-economy have a huge influence in policy-making.”
He added: “The government did not discuss with any camel bodies or camel experts. This law severely impacted the sale of camels and resulted in the decline of the popular cattle fairs in Pushkar, Chadi, and Balotra. In 2018, many herders were forced to sell their camels for just Rs 2,000, but camel herding requires human and financial resources.”
Dr Artabandhu Sahoo, director of the ICAR-National Research Centre on Camel, concurred with Rathore. “The Act single-handedly affected the camel trade. It did not provide any remedy to the breeders. You cannot simply make a law and not provide an alternative to the farmers,” Sahoo told ThePrint.
“With the growing expansion of modern machinery in the desert, the camel started becoming a useless yet expensive animal for the traditional Raika and Rabari communities. We saw a decline from 100 per cent to 30 per cent usage of camels in recent decades as motorcycles, pick-ups, and tractors made their way into the hinterland,” he added.
Sahoo also said instead of enacting this law, the government could have put checks on smuggling.
“There is no organised market for camel milk, milk powder, and other products made of skin and bone. Since the camel is not a diary animal, we have to find ways to sustain it, and one way is to process camel milk. Entrepreneurs should be brought into milk processing, as our research has found out that camel milk has medicinal and therapeutic value,” the scientist said.
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Better rural infrastructure also a reason
A district magistrate posted in Rajasthan, who did not want to be identified, also pointed to the development of rural infrastructure and the advent of the internet and cheap data as reasons for the decline in camels.
“With MGNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, the kucha-pucca roads also became a major reason why no community wants to get involved in camel breeding. You don’t have to feed a tractor, but you have to invest in the health and well-being of a camel,” the DM said.
“Apart from that, earlier, camel festivals used to attract crowds as there were no other means of entertainment. Now, every second person has access to YouTube and web series. This means, along with agro aspects, the entertainment form has also changed. When was the last time we heard of a camel race?” he continued.
“But we need to come up with a few ideas related to tourism and camel milk marketing, so that this animal can be saved from becoming a zoo animal,” the DM added.
Breeders sceptical of govt’s next move
Now that the Rajasthan government plans to restart the Ushtra Vikas Yojana this month, breeders are once again set to get Rs 10,000 as incentive for every camel calf born.
ThePrint accessed the government data, which showed that 30,000 farmers benefitted from this scheme over a four-year period, and the total amount spent was Rs 31.35 crore. It also showed that 5,000 calves were born in 2015-16, 10,000 in 2016-17, and 15,000 the year after that.
The state discontinued the scheme in 2018, because the permission from the central government had lapsed, a state animal husbandry official said.
“We discontinued the scheme as we had got it approved from the Centre for four years only. It was 60 per cent Centre-sponsored. But after meeting the stakeholders, we are restarting the scheme,” the official said.
In the earlier run of the scheme, the amount was to be provided in three instalments over the course of 18 months. But many herders complained that they only received the first instalment.
Devilal from Ajmer told ThePrint over the phone: “I am still waiting for the second and third instalments. The scheme was good but the government should have provided the full amount. Now, many breeders are leaving their camels to die in the desert.”
Shankar Devasi from Bhilwara had a similar story to tell. “Before this law was enacted, I used to have 50 camels, but in recent years, the number has reduced to 20. I had to sell my camels, sometimes for as little as Rs 10,000 at the Pushkar fair. The government also stopped the scheme,” he said.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
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