Since a 2015 legislation banned camel trading, life for the animal as well as its herders has turned tough. SHAlINI SAKSENA speaks to protesting Raika community members and animal activists to bring both sides of the spectrum to the table
July 12, 2016: As many as 87 camels were saved after an alert by People for Animals (PFA) member in Bengaluru. The animals were rescued while crossing crossed the Karnataka-Telangana border. About 90 per cent of these camels were sick — their hooves were injured; they were wounded due to resting on hard surfaces; some were pregnant, others lactating.
December 14, 2016: As many as 66 camels were rescued from Chanchal in north Malda. They had been brought from Rajasthan to be sold at the village market.
December 24, 2016: As many as 15 camels, all with broken teeth, blinded eyes, split mouth and bleeding nose,were rescued near Manesar, around 20 km from the Rajasthan border.
January 20, 2017: A group of 26 camels being illegally transported from Rajasthan to Mewat were rescued and five arrested in two cases in Gurgaon.
January 29, 2017: As many as 13 camels were rescued from Barmer.
January 31, 2017: A cluster of 16 camels, packed in one truck were rescued at Sedwa village in Barmer, just a few km away from the Pakistan border. The animals were dehydrated and hungry.
This is just the tip of the illegal trade that of camels, animal activists tell you. India’s camel population is being drained by an illegal network of traffickers who are transporting these animals from India to Bangladesh for slaughter. The camel population has depleted largely. The population has decreased by 22.48 per cent over the previous census and the total camels in the country is 0.4 million numbers in 2012. NGOs and the Government are working hard on conservation efforts.
NGOs like Dhyan Foundation and People for Animals, chaired by Maneka Gandhi and animal rights activists, are constantly on vigil and tipping off the police about smugglers. Over the past year, the team has saved more than 1,000 camels from being trafficking from Malda and Islampur in West Bengal, Kishanganj in Bihar, Kotputli in Rajasthan and Gurgaon in Haryana.
“These camels are sold during cattle fairs in Rajasthan, largely to people from Baghpat, UP. However, as per the Government rule, the camels can only be sold to farmers for agricultural purposes. The rampant smuggling of camels has led to a huge decline in population and the Government is giving funds to breed camels. It’s a serious issue and strict action and vigilance is required to stop the illegal trafficking”, Radhika Bose, People for Animals, tells you.
“Equally gruesome is the way these camels are transported. Sharp knives and blades attached to the ends of bamboo sticks are used to forcefully load the camels onto the trucks by poking them in their rectum. Their legs are tied and the animals are shoved on top of each other. The journey from Rajasthan to any of these place takes close to 40 hours in the truck without food and water,” Nikita Anand, volunteer at Dhyan Foundation says.
She also tells you that some of these animals find their way into Pakistan where they are killed for meat or used as easy mode of transportation. “Do we really want this illegal trade to flourish so that it can come back at bite us,IJ” she asks.
Other animal activists who rescue camels from States like West Bengal and Karnataka want to know what these animals were doing 1,700 km away from their natural habitat. “Why don’t the transporters have documents required for transporting these animalsIJ What is the purpose of sending camels to BangladeshIJ It is clear that they are being sent illegally for slaughter,” a working professional who has reached out to Dhyan Foundation and People For Animals for organising shelter for the 35 camels she rescued with the help police in Islampur, West Bengal, says.
The sad part is that even after being rescued, the animals are in danger. If the rescued camels are not sent back to their natural habitat soon, they will die. last month, the foundation rescued 61 camels from illegal traffickers in Kishanganj, Bihar. “But as the court orders are still pending, these camels have not been shifted to their natural habitat and as a result three camels have already died”, Nikita tells you. These camels are sold from anywhere between Rs70,000 to Rs1 lakh.
But lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan (lPPS) director Hanumant Singh Rathore says this is not the price that the Raikas get for the camel. “I don’t know who pays that much for camels these days. We don’t get even half of this amount. At most fairs that we go to, the price that our camels fetch is Rs 15,000,” Rathore, who has 40 camels, says.
He tells you that several problems have crept in since the Bill was introduced. First, the price of the camel has fallen drastically. Second, female camels have found their way into fairs something that was unheard of even till five years back. The reason is that the Raika community is finding it difficult to feed the camels they have. They have no option but to sell the females as well. This means that the camel population is falling. Third, what does one do with the male camel which can’t be sold or used to pull loadIJ Then there is another problem. In a herd of 50 females one needs only one male. What does one do with the rest of the young adult camels —around 10 to 15 of themIJ “During mating — from December to March — males become extremely aggressive. They are known to kick and bite humans so they need to be isolated and kept in a pen,” Rathore explains.
One is told that traditionally female camels were never sold for various reasons. The milk was consumed by the community and other cattle. Then there was need to maintain the gene pool.
Amit Deol, secretary People For Animal, Sirohi, who rescues camels from illegal trade, tells you that the condition of the animal is good when it starts its journey. “The animals that we rescue within Rajasthan are in better condition as opposed to those rescued from outside the State. The problems also come up when they are housed in police stations where they are forced to disembark from the truck. The animal is used to eating with its head up. It never eats with its head down. Its food is found only in Rajasthan and the Kutch area of Gujarat. Then there is the climate. All these issues compound problems for the animal.
When it travels long distances, like West Bengal or Karnataka, the camel, whose feet are tied up, develops ailments. Injuries are common as is dehydration and hunger. Also, their hoofs develop problems. The animal is used to the soft desert sand, not the hard surface. While transporting a camel a maximum of three to four should be in a truck. Most of the trucks that we intercept have 15-25. One can guess what the condition of these animals is,” Deol says.
The reason why these animals find themselves in faraway places like West Bengal is because it is easy to transport them to Bangladesh from here. From Bangladesh they are sent to as far away as the Middle-Eastern countries where camel meat is a delicacy. To some extend the ban has meant that the illegal trade has become more rampant. last year alone, Deol and his team rescued around 384 camels. The illegal trade may not be done by the Raikas themselves but somewhere they are responsible for it since they are the ones who are bringing these animals to various fairs where one find females, lactating mothers and even calves.
“The reasons for this are many. First, once the Bill was passed, the Government didn’t create enough awareness among the camel herders. They didn’t find alternatives. The camels fall ill but these herders don’t have access to treatment. Second, there is a lot of wrong information reaching the herders. There is need to find a way to ensure that the male camel finds its use besides just breeding. There was a time when there were camel carts (male were used) for transporting goods. But now, that is also not possible since the Government has said that the animal can’t be used to pull load. So the income from this source has also dried,” Deol tells you.
One solution, he says, is to develop a tourist road map where the camel finds its use. There is need to create awareness among the masses about the advantages of camel milk and promoting various items that can be made from them, like paper from camel dung, camel milk soap, camel milk cheese, etc. Once the Raikas come to know that there is a demand for these items, the male camel will automatically come into prominence and will no longer need to be sold.
Arpan Sharma, director of external relations, Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, India’s apex animal rights organisation, feels the ban is a move in the right direction. “There is a ban on slaughter. The Raikas will tell you that the animal was never bred for meat. This is recent — last six years or so. The male camel was used for agriculture and pulling load, etc. The ban is not on the sale of the animal provided the buyer can prove that the animal is not for slaughter. But the sympathy that we have for the community and all other communities whose livelihood depends on the sale of animals needs to be balanced with the intrinsic right of the animal.
Just because we have labelled the animal as it’ doesn’t mean that it is right to kill 'it'. We strongly feel that there is need to do all those things where the animal is not abused,” Sharma says.
Though the Raikas are suffering, the camel and other such pastoral animals are under threat since the lifestyles are changing. The camel is being beaten and so are the Raikas. It is about oppression and the weakest is always targeted — here the camels. “What we are aiming is that a picture is being put across that tells the story from the camel’s side as well. One has to think what the oont thinks — that he has this family who raises him only to be slaughtered,” Sharma says.
Hence, animal activists say that it is better than the animal not be bred at all than be bred so that he can be killed for meat. But that is not so. The illegal trade continues and the animal is being killed. “The only difference is that overt se covert ho gaya hai,” Sharma says.
The animals are treated as one’s property; they are owned like you own a dog, a cow or a buffalo. There was a time when the slaves were owned as were women. The paradigm is that the weakest is considered the property of the oppressor. This is not an issue of love for the animal but whether a living being which can feel pain and has emotions, like us, should be treated as propertyIJ “The way we removed slavery, it is about issue —a persons right — if it is ‘it’ or he/she. Not about loving an animal. Just because one may not like children doesn’t mean that you go abuse them. This paradigm has been there since Ashoka’s time. His edict had ban on slaughter of animals, etc. So in India, we are best placed to understand this. This is the framework within which we need to work,” Sharma tells you.
Dr Ilse Köhler Rollefson, who has been associated with league for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous livestock Development and lPPS, has been working with the community and the camel. She tells you that she came to India on a research fellowship on camel socio-economics and management systems in 1990-91 and met the Raikas, fell in love with the animal and stayed. Now, after 25 years, what has changed is that there are no buyers. Urbanisation is a major reason why the animal is no longer needed. The camel has been replaced with tractors and trucks. “The camel breeders are not breeding them anymore. The one’s that they have are being neglected and they eventually die,” Dr Ilse says. Therefore, there is need for initiatives where camel products are popularised like camel milk cheese, camel milk and camel milk soap.
Anne Bruntse, a Danish-Kenyan agronomist specialised in organic farming, including dairying and camel cheese-making, was in the Capital recently. She held a workshop wherein she demonstrated how camel milk can be used to create a simple Halloumi cheese.
One is also told that this is the only milk that has zero lactose — 70 per cent of our population is said to suffer lactose intolerance — and closest in constitution to human mothers’ milk, research is underway on its claimed anti-diabetic, anti-autism and anti-allergic properties. The locals (Kenya) say that it has medicinal properties and can cure ulcers. Apparently drinking camel milk for three months can in fact help many people on insulin go off it since it has pre-insulin compounds. “However, a lot more study and research has to be conducted before it can be proven for sure,” Bruntse tells you.
In India, there are NGOs who are selling camel milk locally. They are paturising it and putting them in small bottles, freezing them before they are shipped. The good part is that camel milk can sit in the fridge for up to 10 days without turning sour because of its anti-mircrobials.
Agrees Rathore. “It is time that these products are popularised on a much wider scale. This will help Raikas in the long run. There is need to package camel milk in such a way that it can be made available easily. Big companies should be roped in by the Government. After all camel milk has medicinal properties. It has been known to help people with diabetes, etc,” Rathore say.
As far as the Bill concerned, it is time that the Government entered into a dialogue with the Raikas — two have already taken place. “If there is Rajasthan Camel Bill why hold the fairsIJ Why is the Government allowing people come to these fairs and trade in the animalIJ,” Rathore opines.
Nikita tells you that they are working on a two-pronged strategy. “One, to ensure that there is no illegal trade of the animal and prevent its slaughter. Second, to try and work out a path where these fairs don’t become grounds for such trade,” Nikita says.
