ONE STEP FURTHER – (The Camel Partnership)
Under “The Camel Partnership” initiative, with support from Axis Bank Foundation, Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (RRAN) and Centre For Pastoralism, Urmul Trust has been leading efforts during the COVID-19 lockdown to mobilise resources liaising with Animal Husbandry government officials and identified Youth Changemakers to organise health camps and distribute vaccines for camels infected with Mange. The youth is also helping the households that could not self-administer the vaccines. Besides, we are organising community awareness and mobilising telephonic meetings to curb the spread of the disease. With the aid of the Animal Husbandry Department, close to 2800 camels were vaccinated in the Jodhpur and Jaisalmer district. The programme team, with the aid of its youth network, distributed 420 vaccines to camel herding households in the Bajju cluster along with the distribution of 1950 vaccination in Chimana cluster. Besides, 470 camels were also vaccinated in the Chimana cluster. The programme team felt it was necessary to respond swiftly to the concerns of the herders. With the aid of the programme team and other agencies, we have been closely monitoring the health of the camels and are ensuring that the animals get the required support. As we extend our project goals, we are approached by locals from time to time motivating us to bring about initiatives. “There are around 500 camels in the village, at this time the condition is very difficult due to the foot disease in camels. Due to the travel restrictions, I don’t know how to bring medicines for them. We have even tried visiting the Government Veterinary Hospital, but we are turned away by them, they say they don’t have medicines and when we approach the private ones, they charge more money. We are confused if we should keep feeding our family or vaccinate our camels. We finally decided to free the camels. But when we got to know that Urmul Trust is going to set up a vaccination camp for treatment of camel disease in camels, we were very happy and relieved” – Camel herders Sugana Ram Dewasi and Ramnarayan Dewasi from Mandli village of Bap tehsil. The spirit of the camel herders and their persistence towards the well being of the camels have incited us to organise vaccination camps more frequently. We are also planning to expand the sale of camel milk across the region as a source of income for these herders.
