New Delhi: Every year, Sumer Singh Bhati watches his camel herd grow smaller. Over the past decade, it has shrunk from more than 300 camels to fewer than 200. His neighbor has seen an even steeper decline — from 500 camels to just 50 today — as the animals that have defined livelihoods in the desert land of northwestern India steadily disappear.
The Thar Desert of Rajasthan has for centuries been one of the regions in South Asia most closely associated with camel rearing. The animals have been known in as the “ships of the desert,” and millions of people depended on them for transportation, farming and trade.
But with few incentives to keep them and low interest among the younger generation, Bhati fears camels may soon disappear from Rajasthan.
Even in his own family, neither of his two children want to continue the tradition.
“My children do not want to compromise their future. I will preserve these camels for as long as I am alive. But after I am gone, they will no longer be at our home,” he told Arab News.
“I’m really worried ... This was the animal we survived on for generations. It gave us prosperity and an identity.”
Rajasthan accounts for most of India’s camels. According to data from the state’s Department of Animal Husbandry, the number of animals has declined from around 746,000 in 2012 to approximately 213,000 in 2025 — a drop of 70 percent in just one decade.
Jaisalmer district where Bhati lives, which used to be one of the main regions of camel breeding, is now home to only about 32,000 camels.
Dr. Sumit Dookia, a wildlife biologist at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, sees several factors behind the decline.
His own family used to breed camels and until the 1990s had 500 to 700 animals, but today they have none left.
“Nobody nowadays wants to sit in a camel cart to go from one place to another. Other options are available. Nobody wants to cultivate the fields with the help of camels, so the value of camels has gone down. You can purchase a camel even at the cost of a sheep or a goat,” he said
“This is related to the value system, and being a very large-bodied animal, they need a very big area to roam and feed. It is not possible to feed them in a pen or through stall feeding because the health of the animal is directly and proportionally related to the daily movement this animal gets.”
Land for grazing is an issue too, as over the past decade, more and more people have started fencing their plots. Many have also converted their land into solar farms — a sight very common across Rajasthan. In Jaisalmer district, solar projects now dominate the landscape.
“If you have more than 10 animals, it is not possible for you to keep them in a single place. So, you will graze them in open areas. Now, in western Rajasthan, the open areas are not available,” Dookia said.
Another factor is a 2015 law enacted to protect and preserve the animal by preventing its slaughter and trafficking.
But with the law in place, camels cannot be easily moved from one region to another, even on the district level. To be taken for fair, the herder requires a special permit. To buy the animal, the buyer, too, needs to undergo a special registration process.
“In this scenario, nobody is currently willing to keep camels, and between 2015 to 2026, the economy of camel breeding has totally changed,” Dookia said. “It has become a totally bureaucratic process.”
Dr. Umesh Wargantiwar, deputy director at the Department of Husbandry in Jaisalmer, argues that the law was enacted in direct response to concerns over the plunging numbers of camels in the state.
The local government also offers a 20,000-rupee ($200) incentive to breeders for each camel calf.
“The law in 2015 came after a complaint was raised by camel breeders that their population is dwindling. After the law, their decline has been arrested as they are not being transported to other states for slaughter,” he told Arab News.
“If a camel breeder has five camel babies, they he would get 100,000 rupees and that is enough to take the sufficient care of the animals.”
But back in Jaislamer, Bhati and fellow breeders hope for something more to be able to stay afloat and to prevent Rajasthani camels from becoming “like dinosaurs” in the coming years.
“The main problem is the space to keep them. There is also scarcity of food ... There should be a camel reserve like a tiger reserve, so that they get proper food. There should be proper hospitals to treat camels,” he said.
“I am really worried that camels are fast disappearing from Rajasthan.”
