Why in news:

• Camel breeders in Rajasthan have been holding protests, demanding amendments to the 2015 Act, because their business has suffered due to the inability to sell camels to buyers outside the state.
• The 2015 law prohibits the export of camels for the purpose of slaughter and regulates the temporary migration or export of the animal for other purposes.
   

Major contentions:

• As per the Act, only a competent authority — District collector or any other officer authorized by the state government — can grant permission for temporary migration of the animal.
• The process of getting permission to transport camels outside Rajasthan is so complex that it often takes months.
• As a result, many buyers from other states such as Haryana and Punjab who earlier purchased camels from Rajasthan and took them to their states for agricultural purposes, have stopped buying camels ever since the 2015 law was passed.
• The absence of buyers from different states in cattle fairs has spelt doom for the Raika and Rebari communities, who are traditional camel breeders of Rajasthan.
• Earlier, around 20 camel breeders protested in Sadri in Pali district, demanding that they be allowed to sell camels to buyers outside the state.
• According to the protesters, in recent years, camel breeders have struggled to find buyers at famous cattle fairs such as the Pushkar fair because buyers from outside the state are reluctant to purchase the camels owing to the provisions of the 2015 Act.
• This has resulted in growth of illegal channels like smuggling of camels.
• Aged camels, even when they cease to be capable of yielding milk or working as draught animal can now no longer be said to be useless or unfit.
  
  
   

Government Response:

• As per the senior functionaries of Rajasthan Animal Husbandry Department, a ministerial sub-committee has been constituted to look into the issues raised by the camel breeders.
• A committee has been constituted on the issue and it has also met for a few times. Authorities have promised response and further course of action after the committee submits its report.

The Law:

• In 2015, the Rajasthan Assembly passed a law that bans the slaughter, trading and unauthorised transportation of camels called The Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 2015.
• Camel had been declared as the State animal in 2014, though there was some opposition from the communities whose livelihoods depend on camel.
• The Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 2015 also makes causing injury to camel punishable.
• Under the Act, Camel slaughter is punishable by up to five years along with a monetary fine.
• The Act also tries to allay apprehensions raised by different stakeholders over some provisions of the Bill, including piercing of nose which could be punishable under intentional injury, by clarifying that rituals and traditional practices would not be made punishable.
  
   

Government’s Reasoning for the law:

• As per the provisional data of the 20th Livestock Census of Rajasthan, in 2019, there were 2.12 lakh camels in the state, which was much less than the figure in 2012, when there were 3.2 lakh camels in the state.
• According to the statement of objectives of the Bill, camel is an integral part of the desert eco-system of the State and has played a very important role in the survival of human population in adverse desert conditions.
• Presently, Camel is endangered and in need for initiation of sincere efforts for its conservation and protection, due to an alarming steep population decline observed in the recent past.
• Several cases of intentional killings of camel and its progeny had also come to light.
• It had also been observed that a large number of camels were transported or carried out of Rajasthan to other States for the purpose of slaughter.
• The existing laws were not sufficient to tackle this problem.
• In order to protect and improve the natural environment by minimising dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and by using natural and soil friendly manure generated as a biological waste by these animals
• To have compassion for such useful living creatures as envisaged in Article 51A (g) of the Constitution, the slaughtering of these animals needs to be strictly prohibited
• Agriculture being the main stay of the state’s economy, camel as a working animal is also the backbone of the state’s agricultural and village economic structure, states the law.