1/8. Another first for India: police in Amravati, Maharashtra are holding 58 camels “in detention.” They also arrested their pastoralist herders – who’ve managed bail – from Kachchh on charges of cruelty to the animals. Story link at end of thread.
#animal #camel #cattle
2/8. The 5 semi-nomadic herders were going to Rabari settlements in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to deliver camels that communities there had ordered through kin in Kachchh. They’ve been doing this for decades without anyone accusing them of cruelty.
#animal #camel #cattle
3/8. The police acted on a complaint from the Bharatiya Prani Mitra Sangh (BPMS), Hyderabad, whose leader claims the camels were being taken to slaughterhouses in Hyderabad. So the camels are now lodged in a gauraksha kendra (cattle shelter) in Amravati.
#animal #camel #cattle
4/8. As Jaideep Hardikar’s fine story (link at end of thread) tells us: Camels and cattle have very different diets. Camels are not used to confined feeding systems and love open grazing – which they’re now denied. Oddly this isn’t seen as cruelty.
#animal #camel #cattle
5/8. The BPMS leader asserts camels are “Rajasthan’s state animal and can’t acclimatise in other states.” Maybe his pals can show him Kachchh and Gujarat on a map of India. The herders on the other hand, have never been to Hyderabad.
#animal #camel #cattle
6/8. Both police and ‘animal rights activists’ were clueless on how to transport the camels ‘detained’ in Talegaon Dashasar to Amravati town. Ironically, kinfolk of the accused herders walked the creatures 55 km to the cow shelter in Amravati.
#animal #camel #cattle
7/8. And so a bunch of nomads rarely carrying documents even for themselves are now having to produce ID cards for camels in the Dhamangaon court – which they’ve done. And 3 gram panchayats in Khachchh have stepped in to confirm their credentials.
#animal #camel #cattle
8/8. Could these camels be part of a larger conspiracy? Remember the normal hangout of these taciturn creatures is very near the Pak border and they walk all over that place as if they own it. Who knows who they report to?
#animal #camel #cattle
Link: ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/ka…
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