Every morning, Sanjay Bishnoi walks with his 20-odd camels across the vast grasslands of Pokhran in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. He often settles in the shade, phone in hand, guiding his camels toward the Bhadariya Oran—a sacred grassland where like many breeders in the region, he has also left his herd of over 300 camels to graze freely.
“Earlier, camels were prized possessions, like cars. Now, no breeder is interested in them,” says the 22-year-old Bishnoi, a third-generation camel breeder. Traditionally popular in the pastoral Raika community, camel breeding has been significantly declining, especially in the last two decades.
The state is home to around 85 per cent of India’s camel population. Of this, the Thar Desert region has one of the highest populations making it a crucial camel ‘sanctuary’. As per the 20th livestock census, the camel population in the state has dipped by 71 per cent to just 2,13,000 from 7,46,000 in the 1990s.
Traditionally, breeders used to milk female camels and male camels were used for transportation and agriculture purposes. For a herd of 40-80 camels, one male camel was enough. Earlier breeders would sell the males at animal trade fairs like Pushkar. However, the Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 2015 banning transport and sale outside the state has left the breeders with no choice but to abandon the non-milking camels.
“After the ban, there are hardly any buyers,” says Gauri Shankar Punia from Pokhran, who owns over 150 camels. The ban has effectively reduced male camel price to just Rs 10,000-12,000. “Earlier, a four to five-year-old bull camel would be priced between Rs 40,000-80,000. We would sell multiple camels in a fair. Now, we hardly sell one or two,” rues Punia.
Motorisation in transport and agriculture, has forced this once ‘ship of the desert’ to lose its importance as a means of commuting. Wildlife biologist Sumit Dookia, a professor at University School of Environment Management, GGS Indraprastha University, says that motorisation and the ban on camel transport has made camel breeding difficult to sustain—effectively leaving breeders without any market.
Local wildlife conservator Radheshyam Bishnoi, who has been advocating for earmarking protected regions for camels, believes shrinking grazing land is one of the major reasons behind the reducing numbers. After the arrival of canal water, many locals have shifted to farming, encroaching the land which was earlier available for grazing.
Moreover, the government has allocated vast stretches of grasslands—once the traditional grazing land for camels—for big solar energy projects. Leaving camels in the open grazing land comes with its own dangers. “During the monsoon season, camels like to graze on small grass. In search of this, they often come to the nearby road and railway tracks, resulting in fatal accidents,” says Sanjay Bishnoi.
To save the dwindling camel population, in May 2024, the Rajasthan government raised its financial incentive for raising a newborn calf to Rs 20,000 from the earlier Rs 10,000. While Punia calls it a “positive step,” he insists breeders need more government support. Some breeders like Bishnoi believe that camel milk is the only sustainable way.
Camel milk has often been touted as a superfood, claimed to be beneficial for diabetes, liver disease and jaundice. Despite its high nutritional value, it struggles to compete with cow and buffalo milk. “If it becomes a high-value product, camel breeding could be sustainable,” he says.
Hanwant Singh Rathore, founder of Camel Charisma, an NGO supporting the traditional Raika community, agrees with Bishnoi. He believes the only way to prevent camel from being abandoned is by “establishing small, community-led dairies and positioning camel milk.”
But saving this ship of the desert from sinking is not that easy. Protecting camels needs to be approached “differently, with continued support from the local communities,” says distinguished veterinarian and founder of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development (LPP), Ilse Köhler-Rollefson.
She explains that camels are adapted to tree vegetation of the Thar desert region and can’t be kept in confinement. They need large grazing areas. “Otherwise they get sick and die,” she says, adding that India should take a leaf out of how China has managed to stabilise its dwindling camel population.
“China designated protected habitats, geo-tagging individual animals to monitor their movements, and promoting camel milk,” Köhler-Rollefson says.
But Bishnoi holds no hope for the future. “Come back in five years, and I’ll have only half the camels I have today,” he says with grim certainty as he tends to his camels.