HYDERABAD: Days ahead of Bakrid festival, animal activists in the city rescued over 100 camels from Karwan here. They were allegedly transported from Rajasthan for slaughtering. Rescuers claim that all these animals were made to walk all the way to Hyderabad. After getting information that over 100 camels were housed in a small area, animal activists with the help of police asked the handlers to surrender the animal. “Camel is regarded as the state animal of Rajasthan and no person shall possess, sell or transport for sale or cause to be sold or transport camel meat or camel meat products in any form,” said Meenakshi Vijaywargi of Animal Welfare Board of India, who carried out the rescue.
“Based on a tip-off, we visited the spot and lodged two complaints at Tappachabutra police station regarding the illegal rearing of the camel on Saturday and with the help of police on Monday we were trying to take the animals into our custody,” she said, adding that the handlers staged a protest against them. Vijaywargi said that camel including several calves and some injured ones were forced to walk from Rajasthan to here, “most of the handlers were from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,” she said.
According to the Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 2015, which came into effect in 2016, bringing animal outside Rajasthan is illegal, she said.
“Cow and camel are supposed to get some protection with seven years in jail for slaughtering, and three years for smuggling it across state borders,” she said.
This law has been absolutely ineffective with hundreds of camels being smuggled every year to Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana for slaughtering purpose, especially during Ramzan and Bakrid, said Chandrani Iyer, a member of AWBI.Alleging that the Rajasthan government has failed to take any concrete step to either conserve the species or help in its proliferation, Iyer said, “These days, one can easily spot camels in their locality and on Friday we have rescued 33 camels from Malakpet.” However, the police claim that the animals were not brought here for slaughtering. “We have registered an FIR and counselled about 20 camel handlers on the illegal rearing of the animal and asked to take them back to Rajasthan,” said Ch Chandrasekhar, SHO, Tappachabutra police station.