No Beast Of Burden
A celebration of the ship of the desert amid its dwindling numbers
No Beast Of Burden
The camel has other uses. Camel milk is a rich source of nutrients and can be consumed even by the lactose-intolerant. NRCC offers:
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However, the presence of this curious foreigner also underscored the irony of the situation, which herdsman-farmer Ram Lal Akasar was quick to point out: “Agar jaanwar hi nahin to mela kya rahega (How will the fair remain if the animal doesn’t)?” he asked sardonically.
It’s the very issue Rajasthan, a state not just strongly associated with the camel in popular imagery, but home to 80 per cent of India’s camels, is trying to grapple with—the declining camel population. It’s also the focus of filmmakers Lindstrom, Philippa and Alicia Sully, from Sweden, UK and the US respectively, who are collaborating on an ambitious, worldwide camel project. They have been on the road for seven months through countries like Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Egypt, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Mauritania and Kenya, and now India. “We have been eating, breathing, sleeping camels,” says Phillipa, the writer in the team.
Predictably, the camel was one of the first creatures they encountered on crossing the border into Rajasthan and saw more and more of them as they went on. But the picture was not as good it looked. A 1997 survey put the population of camels in Rajasthan at nearly seven lakh. However, it declined by as much as 23 per cent from 1997 to 2003, and by another 18 per cent by 2007, the year the last camel census was undertaken.
So why are so many camels missing? Increased mechanisation and automisation and insufficient fodder are apparently their two mortal enemies. Their grazing grounds are being notified or being appropriated by the urban spread, leaving them with less and less to feed on. Besides, trucks and tractors are replacing them in carting and ploughing; by contrast, it’s costlier to rear them. Herdsman Bashir Khan, who owns 10 camels, is one of many trying hard to find ways to put them to good use. “I send them off for shaadi-byaah. They have even gone all the way to Bombay for a big wedding,” he says.
Some in Rajasthan think the key thing is to promote camel milk. “From being a draft animal the camel must also be used as a milch animal,” says Dr N.V. Patil, director of the National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC), engaged in producing various milk products (see box). A common saying in these parts is that even if you feed newspapers to a camel it will give you a good quantity of milk. However, in India, one of the largest producers of milk in the world, camel milk is only sparingly produced and used. It hasn’t quite reached malls and supermarkets as it has in Dubai, for instance. That, these experts point out, is a pity, because camel milk is more nutritious and easily digestible than cow’s milk and can be drunk even by the lactose-intolerant. It’s rich in vitamin C, copper, zinc, iron and immunoglobins and contains less unsaturated fatty acids. “It’s the closest to human breast milk,” says Lindstrom. “It could be sold as a health product.” The claimed health benefits include controlling diabetes, TB and Crohn’s Disease. Sonlal Detarwal, who regularly buys milk from NRCC, claims his blood sugar levels came down from 240 to 140 in three months of consuming it. Sixty litres of the 120 litres of milk produced daily at NRCC gets transported to Faridkot in Punjab for distribution amongst mentally-challenged children. It is also trying to develop more appetising products like camel cheese and yoghurt and sweets like barfi, rasgulla and gulab jamun, but this is still at a pilot stage.
Meanwhile, Lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan, an NGO based in Sadri, near Udaipur, has found another innovative way of putting the camel to use. In association with Haathi Chaap, they have launched notepads, diaries and greeting cards made with handmade paper produced from camel dung. LPPS, with Bhuttico, a Kullu weaver’s cooperative, also produces caps and stoles made from a mixture of fine camel wool and silk. All of this could be the start of a new journey for the ship of the desert—if consumers are willing to do their bit too.