Camel Milk & the Future of Pastoralism in the Thar
The Raika camel-herders of Rajasthan are commercializing their traditional knowledge, so future generations will be incentivized to continue camel herding. Aakriti Srivastava and Madhavi Peters find out more.
In her famous TED talk, Nigerian-American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns us of the dangers of a single story: “Show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.”
When we tell a single story, we define people who are not like ‘us’ solely by reference to characteristics that define ‘us.’ We say, the desert lacks trees, not the jungle lacks sand. We say, nomads lack roots, not tillers lack a wider perspective. And so, we plant trees in the desert and forcibly settle nomadic communities, often with disastrous results.
The people of the desert do not consider themselves a people who want for anything. While they may not inhabit rich agricultural lands, what they do have instead are dromedaries. Legend has it that they were anointed by Lord Shiva himself, to care for the descendants of the first camel that his consort, Parvati, shaped from clay.
The Raika can recognise their camels from footprints in the sand dunes.
In our limited vision, one camel is no different than any other. For the Raika camel-herders of the Thar, every camel is unique. The Raika can recognise their camels from footprints in the sand dunes (no CSI required). Avid consumers of Bollywood fare, they name their long-lashed companions after silver screen heartthrobs: there is a Kareena and Katrina in almost every herd.
Lord Krishna and his mischief-making cowherds along the Yamuna may dominate our collective imagination, but did you know that in the desert, it is Harmel Raika — who stole hundreds of camels from Lanka to bring back home? And while Krishna had a weakness for butter, the Raikas never made butter or ghee, preferring instead to consume unprocessed camel milk.
The Raikas consume the camel’s milk unprocessed as a primary source of nutrition.
Milk from camels is an excellent source of nutrition, especially for herders on walkabout, believed to be a gift from god. When there is surplus, it is always given away for free. “Dhudh bechna, beta bechna”, is the Raika proverb. Alone among dromedary pastoral communities in the world, the Raika never consume their camels for food.
The inherent environmentalism of dromedary pastoralism
The Raika follow a pastoral way of life, uniquely adapted to the desert’s ecology. It maximises synergies between ruminants and rangelands through the mobility of their animals and their adaptability to seasonal precipitation and forage availability. Pastoral breeds need little water because of physiological recycling mechanisms that enable them to tolerate longer watering intervals and make them less sensitive to water stress. (Ever heard the expression, “to have the bladder of a camel”?) The livestock are watered every other day, or even every second day during dry season. During the rainy season, livestock can thrive on untreated surface water. For several months each year, pastoral herds use water in areas that are often far from human settlements. As their excreta is dispersed across vast areas of rangeland and farmland, pastoral herds do not contribute to the pollution of water (from high concentrations of unrecycled nutrients in livestock excreta, ie, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Judicious grazing along Common Property Ranges (CPR) propels the proliferation of perennial grasses and vegetation with the deep root systems necessary for carbon sequestration.
In the past, the Thar desert’s pastoralists and agriculturalists shared a symbiotic relationship. Farmers welcomed camels onto their lands for their manure and the afore-mentioned ecosystem services. And while their camels grazed, herders were an additional pair of helping hands on the farm, always welcome in this sparsely populated region. In return, the farmers would give the Raika bajra or millet flour, and occasionally even some gur. The Raika mix the bajra with camel milk and gur, to make a complete meal — the story of an entire ecosystem in a bowl of Lapsi.
From oontni ki doodh ki lapsi to halloumi cheese
Modernity eventually came for the Raika. Common property has given way to private property, traditional desert water conservation systems to the Indira Gandhi water canal, pastoralism to irrigation and agriculture, and camels to motorized vehicles. Where young Raika women once aspired to marry into a family with a large herd of camels, today coveted status markers are a Mahindra Scorpio and a government job. The loss of invaluable traditional knowledge on how to navigate the balance between nature and livelihoods poses an existential threat to the delicate desert ecosystem.
But the Raika will not go quietly into the night. Fighting to preserve their way of life, they are adapting to the demands of a modern market economy. The Raika hope that by commercialising their traditional knowledge, future generations will be incentivised to continue camel herding. They have begun to sell camel milk into a market with a newfound appreciation for traditional foods. Their attempts have been given a boost by the all-powerful cooperative dairy system in Rajasthan, which has recently started to promote camel milk.
Technological innovations have allowed the Raika to make camel milk butter, cheese and ghee for the first time.
Moreover, challenging the popular perception of such communities as hidebound and backwards, the Raika are embracing technology. While traditional churning methods cannot extract fats and non-solid fats from camel milk, innovations developed in collaboration with scientists and development partners have made it possible for the Raika to make camel milk butter, cheese and ghee for the first time. These foods have long been a part of dromedary pastoral communities in other parts of the Afro-Asian desert belt, but it is only through more thoughtful development interventions that the Raika are finally able to enjoy them as well.
Our stories, like our ecologies, are interconnected. By giving room for multiple stories, we acknowledge not only our diversity, but also the interplay between our stories. The salubrious environmental effects of dromedary pastoralism go beyond the Raikas to benefit society at large. A deeper appreciation for our collective heritage will better prepare us to meet the considerable challenges of the future.
Genaram Raika is a camel herder belonging to the Raika community of Rajasthan. He has been assisted in sharing his traditional wisdom by Aakriti Srivastava and Madhavi Peters, Esq. of Bahula Naturals, a social enterprise working to connect hot and cold desert producers with the marketplace.
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