Illegal slaughtering of camels

The Indian union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, last week raised concerns about the widespread slaughtering of Camels during the Islamic festival of Bakrid and the illegal markets for Camel meat throughout the country. She was speaking at the three-day international conference on ‘India for animals’ which was organized by the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO) in Jaipur.

Camels which are known as the ship of the desert are the main source of transportation in the deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. They are also the main source of income for most of the poor families for their low maintenance costs as they can live on dry grass and shrubs. They remain one of the popular attractions among foreigners and domestic tourists alike in Rajasthan.

Because of the rise in unchecked slaughtering of these animals in recent years, their numbers have come down drastically prompting the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) to declare Camels (in India), an endangered species. For many conservationists across the nation, this (slaughtering) is a deeply worrying trend especially in the light of Camels being the mainstay of rural life in many desert areas. In remote villages, the camel is used for delivering mails, to draw water from deep bore wells and in other useful applications.

The minister also said that there is an illegal market for Camel meat in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and there is a huge demand in Hyderabad city especially during ‘Bakrid’ and that the city municipality is not taking any action to prevent it.

The camels are bought from weekly bazaars in Rajasthan and even the hugely popular ‘Pushkar Mela’ is used as a collecting point for this inhumane and illegal trade. They are then taken to Bagphat in Uttar Pradesh either by foot or in trucks in appalling conditions, where they would be slaughtered. Many NGOs have intercepted trucks carrying Camels on their way to Bangladesh on a routine basis.  Even in states like Karnataka where camels are banned, illegal smugglers bring them in under the false pretext of offering joyrides for children. The Minister also quoted from Prophet Mohammed’s teachings saying that “‘Bakrid’ refers to the killing of a ram by Ibrahim when God replaced the son with a goat, so why kill camels which cannot even be legally eaten?”

It is noteworthy that camels which are known as the ship of the desert are the main source of transportation in the deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. They are also the main source of income for most of the poor families for their low maintenance costs as they can live on dry grass and shrubs. Maneka Gandhi has been a vociferous activist for animal rights and has been actively involved in bringing down the unchecked violence and cruelty meted out to animals.

Vijay ram