Ritayan Mukherjee

Sharmila Joshi

Editor

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The camels – around 40 of them – had just swum back from an island in
the ocean off Mohadi village
in Abdasa taluka.
They belonged to Ismail Jat, a herder from the Fakirani Jat community.

I could barely believe what I was seeing – camels who swim? But these
were the magnificent Kharai camels – during the peak summer months from March-April till
mid-July, they spend 3-4 days at a time on islands off the coast of Kachchh feeding on marine mangroves.
Then the animals swim back – up to three kilometres each way – to the coastal
villages to fill up on drinking
water. And then they  return to the islands.

The camels are accompanied by herders from the unt maldhari or
camel pastoralist communities of Gujarat. Two male maldharis usually form a team –
either both swim along or one uses a small boat, ferrying rotis and drinking water,
and comes back to the village. The other herder stays on the island with the
camels, where he supplements his
sparse meals with camel milk, an important part of the community’s diet. 

Once the rains starts, the maldharis leave the camels on the islands. By
around the middle of September, they bring the animals back and take them for
grazing on rain-fed grasslands and shoreline mangroves. (See <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/the-endless-search-for-grazing-grounds">The
endless search for grazing grounds</a>) 

I first saw the swimming camels in 2015; I went with a maldhari
from Mohadi in a boat alongside the camels, but could not go all the way to the
island without permission from the Border Security Force (BSF). The region is
close to the border with Pakistan, and movement in and out of the ocean is closely
monitored by BSF check posts. Meanwhile, the camels started disappearing over
the horizon in the water. 

Later, Ismail told me that ‘kharai’ means ‘salty’ in Gujarati. These
camels are a special breed that has successfully adapted to ecotone zones or transitional
areas of vegetation – here, coastal mangroves and grasslands. Their diet
includes various plants, shrubs and mangroves. But if they don’t eat mangroves
for long, these sturdy animals get sick and can eventually waste away. 

In Kachchh, two pastoralist communities
keep Kharai camels – the Rabaris
and Fakirani Jats, while the Sama community keeps camels too, but not
Kharai. There are around 5,000 Kharai camels in Gujarat, notes the Kachchh Unt
Uccherak Maldhari Sanghatan (Kachchh Camel Breeders Association). 

Of these, around 2,000 Kharai
camels live in Kachchh district, which has a massive network of islands and mangroves.
But these once-thriving forests have been fast disappearing,  giving way to salt pans for big manufacturers, or to industries. Large grazing tracts have also been cordoned off as protected
areas by the government, or taken over by the invasive gando baavar
(prosopis
julifora) plant species.

On a visit to Bhachau
taluka,
around 85 kilometres
from the district capital Bhuj in July 2018, within a few kilometres from the
highway, I saw an endless expanse of salt beds, far more than during previous
visits. Then in the Amaliyara
area of the taluka, I met Mubarak Jat and his family on a small tapu
(island) surrounded by mud. The mangrove pastures had almost run out for their highly
valued 30 Kharai camels. “We don’t know where we will move to next,” he said. “There
is no green left here. We are changing locations frequently to survive, but how
long? The salt pans are everywhere.”

Earlier this year, the Kachchh Camel Breeders Association appealed
to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the widespread salt pan leases given
by the Deendayal Port Trust. In March 2018,
the NGT passed an interim order stopping salt pan activity on leased land between
Kandla and Surajbari.
And mandated an inspection by the Gujarat State
Pollution Control Board, the Central Pollution Control Board, the Gujarat
Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), and other administrators. The inspection’s report was submitted in April. The
case is in process.  

Later in my visit in July, I spent a few days in Lakhpat taluka,
around 210 kilometres from
Bhachau, home to several Fakirani Jat families. But many in this
community are no longer nomadic. They say this is because of the absence of
grazing grounds for their Kharai camels. Karim Jat of Mori
village says, “I don’t want to give up our traditional life. But I had
to. The rain is scarce here. The mangroves are depleting or have become
protected areas where we cannot graze our animals. What should we do? These
camels are like my family members. Seeing their suffering breaks my heart.”

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Ramesh Bhatti

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Ramesh Bhatti is the Bhuj-based programme director and team leader at the Centre for Pastoralism in Delhi. He works on natural resource management, pastoral development, livelihoods and gender issues.

The swimming camels of Kachchh

கட்சின் நீந்தும் ஒட்டகங்கள்

কচ্ছের সাঁতারু উটের দল

કચ્છના તરતા ઊંટો

कच्छ के तैरने वाले ऊंट

کچھّ کے تیرنے والے اونٹ

कच्छचे पोहणारे उंट

କଚ୍ଛର ପହଁରୁଥିବା ଓଟ

Kachchh

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The swimming camels of Kachchh

The magnificent Kharai camels get vital elements of their diet from marine mangroves on islands – and get there by swimming – yes swimming! – several kilometres off the coast of Kachchh (or Kutch) in Gujarat

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