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The Rajasthan Camel Bill, pending before the state legislature, proposes a blanket ban on camel slaughter, and on the export of camels from the state. Its provisions are meant to stem a decline of camel numbers in Rajasthan, and follow the recognition of the camel as a state animal last June. But the bill has caused deep disquiet among the Raika, a traditional Hindu community responsible for most of the camel breeding in Rajasthan, by threatening the last remaining economic incentives for raising the animals.
For centuries, the Raika sold male calves as draught animals to farmers, merchants, and the cavalry regiments of the area's Rajput chieftains. Females augmented herds and were never sold, and there was a taboo among the community, which is vegetarian, against selling their camels for meat. But as mechanisation reduced demand for draught animals, some Raika quietly started selling camels for slaughter. As the practice continued, herds were decimated. Censuses by the central government show Rajasthan's camel population to have declined from 669,000 to about 422,000 between 1997 and 2007, and then to just above 325,000 in 2012.
Köhler-Rollefson and I walked to a visitors' stall run by the Lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan, or LPPS. She works closely with the NGO, founded to support the Raika by a local activist, Hanwant Singh Rathore, in 1996. In 2001, she told me, "Raika leaders, assembled here in Pushkar, called Hanwant and me for a meeting. They said many in their community were selling their female camels for meat. We were shocked." The leaders wanted a ban on slaughtering females. "We wrote to everybody," Köhler-Rollefson said, "from the district collector to the chief minister," but no action was taken.
When the Rajasthan government declared the camel a state animal, Köhler-Rollefson said, LPPS "thought perhaps now things would change for the better." But their delight ended after hearing of the Rajasthan Camel Bill. LPPS insists that the slaughter of male camels be allowed to allow camel breeders a livelihood, while the killing of females be banned to preserve herds. Rathore, who had been busy attending to visitors, sat down next to us. "If there is no earth, where will the seed come from?" he asked, reciting a Marwari saying. "If there are no females, where will the calves come from? There are only 200,000 camels left now. At this rate, soon we will lose them all."
The Raika's traditional ways have also been jeopardised by the disappearance of pasture. Many old grazing grounds have been overrun by Prosopis juliflora, a rampant invasive plant that some villagers have taken to calling baavli, or "the mad one." Other pastures have, since the 1970s, been turned into farmland, thanks to irrigation schemes. Elsewhere, electronic pumps and tube wells allow fields where camels earlier foraged during fallow periods to be tilled year-round.
| THE BETTER MILK It is said to benefit those with diabetes, strengthen the body's immune system and also act as a powerful anti-oxidant. Camel's milk, though not easily available and a bit salty in taste, might just score over cow and buffalo milk when it comes to nutritional advantages. |
Studies indicate that camel milk has a higher concentration of an insulin-like protein that improves sugar control and thus helps diabetics. The size of the immunoglobulins, or antibodies, found in camel milk is also smaller, making it easier for these antibodies to target the antigens, or the harmful, disease-causing foreign substances. The fat content is also comparatively lower than in cow and buffalo milk, making it easier to digest. Rich in minerals, proteins, vitamin C and enzymes, camel milk, some doctors say, also has the ability to control some types of cancers and has therapeutic value in the treatment of tuberculosis.
The challenge is: how to procure it. Amul has, in the recent past, said it intends to start marketing camel's milk. Camel milk soap, meanwhile, is already available on e-commerce site, Flipkart. A Camel Soap Factory product, it costs around Rs 1,700 for a 100 gm bar.
BS Reporter
The Raika also no longer have free use of old grazing areas that have come under the control of the forest department, and often have no choice but to violate restrictions at the risk of fines. LPPS makes artisanal products such as camel-milk soap - bars of which were on sale at the stall - but it's hard to imagine these becoming mainstays of the Raika economy. Other economic alternatives, such as cooperatives to process and sell camel milk, have been shot down.
Economist Bibek Debroy, a member of the NITI Ayog, a new central planning body, wrote in a column in November that it would be too expensive and impractical to collect milk from the Raika since the community is very widely dispersed. He argued in favour of farming camels for meat instead.
Hajiram, an elderly Raika, joined us. Köhler-Rollefson asked him the going price of camels at the fair. His shoulders slumped. "Camels that sold for Rs 20,000 last year are selling for Rs 7,000 and Rs 8,000," he said. "Meat traders bought the most."