Camels end on Bangladeshi platters The Times of India of 21 January 2005 carried a story on how camels from Rajasthan are being exported to Bangladesh for slaughter. The article quotes evidence from Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan that scores of camels were bought from Pushkar fair by traders from Bangladesh. Read this article

The Winter 2004-2005 issue of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise journal For Enterprise features the work of LPP founder Ilse Köhler-Rollefson in Rajasthan. It highlights the camel yatra that Ilse and members of the NGO Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan launched in January 2005 to draw attention to the declining numbers of camels in Rajasthan, and the threat this brings to their traditional Raika herders. Ilse received an Associate Laureate award from Rolex in 2002 for her work with the Raika.

The ELDev discussion group enables members to exchange ideas and information on "endogenous livestock development". This is a people-centred approach that focuses on the development of livestock production, based on livestock keepers’ initiatives, their own worldview, values, knowledge, institutions, and locally available resources, as well as suitable outside resources.

The group started as a discussion group on ethnoveterinary medicine, but has recently expanded to cover broader aspects of people-centred livestock development. The group has over 200 members.

To join the ELDev group, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ELDev or send a blank email to ELDev-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The League for Pastoral Peoples booklet, Livestock Keepers' Rights: Conserving breeds, supporting livelihoods (see below), has been published in German as Tierhalterrechte: Nutztierrassen erhalten, ländliche Existenzen bewahren. Download 276 kb, 20 pages. Download English version 262 kb, 20 pages. Contact info@pastoralpeoples.org for a free hardcopy.

There were 60,000 camels at Pushkar Fair this year, according the BBC's Susie Emmett. But their numbers are falling. BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent programme of 23 December 2004 included a segment on problems facing Raika camel breeders in Rajasthan. Many female camels are now sold for meat - breaking a longstanding taboo among the Raika. They are forced to sell the camels because the animals have nowhere to graze, says LPPS Director Hanwant Singh Rathore.

Camels are the focus of the January 2005 edition of the New Agriculturist, an online magazine on agricultural development.

Articles by New Agriculturist reporter Susie Emmett cover the decline of camels in Rajasthan in western India, and their rising popularity in Kenya; the health benefits and market potential of camel milk; and the working camels of India and the racing camels of the Gulf.

Several of these articles are based on papers presented at the international conference on Saving the Camel and People's Livelihoods, held on 23-25 November at Sadri, Rajasthan. This conference was hosted by Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan as part of the LIFE Initiative.

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