News in frames: Kutch’s dwindling camel population

Kutch, in Gujarat, was once home to thousands of camels that roamed its forests and the Greater Rann, a salt marsh in the Thar Desert. Today, the animals are becoming increasingly scarce, their numbers shrinking amid industrialisation, the loss of habitats and restrictions on grazing.

The decline is evident at the annual Bhed Mata Camel Fair at Kotda-Chakar, about 35 km from Bhuj, where the number of camels has fallen dramatically over the decades. “Kutch is famous for its Greater Rann, and the Rann’s symbolic animal is the camel,” says Hiralal Balwa, a veteran artist and pictorial photographer from Bhuj.

He began attending the fair in the early 1980s and continued until the late 1990s. “There were thousands of camels,” he says, “so many that you could not find space to park a two-wheeler. This year, I saw fewer than 200 at the fair.”

Lakhan Bhima Rabari, a camel herder from Sanosara village in Kutch, fears the animals could disappear from the landscape altogether. “In the next 10 to 15 years, you will find camels only in photos and videos,” says Mr. Bhima.

Camels depend on tree leaves for food, unlike other livestock, which have a wider range of food sources. Forests also provide them with shelter, making the loss of these habitats a major threat, the herder adds. He also points to the poor returns that herders receive for camel milk, which he claims is used to make medicines for diabetes and other diseases. While they struggle to secure a fair price for the milk, he says, medicines made from it are sold at high prices.

At 45,674 sq. km, Kutch is India’s largest district, larger than States such as Haryana and Kerala. Yet, its vast landscape has not been enough to protect its camel population from a steady decline.

As per official records, the camel population in the district peaked at 17,639 in the 1992 Census, the highest figure recorded. “The numbers began to decline after 2010,” says Ramesh Bhatti, programme director of Sahjeevan, a non-governmental organisation based in Bhuj.

Mr. Bhatti attributes the decline to industrialisation and the diversion of land for irrigation, solar and wind power projects, and the mining of lignite, bauxite, china clay and gypsum. “These activities have depleted the district’s forests,” he adds, “The spread of the invasive species Prosopis juliflora has further aggravated the problem.”

“During princely rule, forest areas were freely accessible to camel herders for grazing. For the past 30 to 40 years, however, the Gujarat Forest Department has restricted free grazing by camels in Kutch,” says Mr. Bhatti.