LPP and its partners LPPS and the Camel breeders of Rajasthan have lobbied for years for government support for camel dairying. Most recently at the Marwar Camel Culture Festival where this proposition received strong backing of H.H. Maharaja of Jodhpur, we are happy to report there now seem to be concrete plans by the Rajasthan cooperative diary to initiate the purchase and sale of camel milk.

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Rajasthan’s camel breeding communities – representing various castes, incuding Raika, Rajput, Muslim, Bishnoi, Jat, and others – presented their Biocultural Community Protocol to H.H. Maharaja of Jodhpur and to two of Rajasthan’s ministers during the Marwar Camel Culture Festival on 5th November, 2017. In addition, they released a suggested draft Rajasthan draft state policy on camel conservation 21 October 2017 that cuts across all relevant government departments, including animal husbandry, forests, rural development and tourism. Unless some strong action is taken, the camel in Rajasthan is doomed, despite global demand for camel milk rising steeply and providing significat income opportunities for poor people in rural areas, as seen with the Kumbhalgarh Camel Dairy, India’s first micro-camel dairy located on the campus of LPP’s partner organization Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan.

From 4^th-8^th September international experts and practioners met in Sadri (Rajasthan/India) at LPPS campus to develop guidelines for BCPs by pastoralist communities. The writeshop was facilitated by Dr. Paul Mundy and attended by participants from India, Africa and Europe.