Nagpur: The camel seat of the Amravati case now has high profile activists and politicians who jump to Medan.
Last week, the police near the city of Dhamangaon won 58 camels and ordered shepherds for cruelty to animals, which have been running from Kutch District in Gujarat within 1,200 km.
Shepherders are Rabaris – a pastoral community from Gujarat.
Complaints by a 71-year-old activist from Hyderabad, Jasraj Rupchand, said the animals were taken there to be slaughtered.
After migrating from Gujarat, Rabaris can also be found in Vidarbha.
They raised sheep and use camels for transportation, leading semi-nomadic life.
When the shepherds are now fighting in court to regain ownership of camels, which they claim hungry in beef shelter, big names have been interested in this case.
Lok Sabha members and Animal Judge Activists Manka Gandhi seemed to have called a senior police officer to review this case.
A Navneet Rana video, MP from Amravati, was also seen, where he appreciated the police for the ‘saved camel being taken to Hyderabad to be slaughtered’.
He said the camel was threatened with extinction with no more than 20,000 left in this country.
Gandhi told Ti that the camel was arrested on the Yavatmal border, from where they were taken to Hyderabad through Adilabad.
“There is a large racket and this syndicate is run from Bagpath at Uttar Pradesh.
Camel was also brought to Bangladesh.
There are no questions to have so many camels together,” he said.
Gandhi said the food safety and standard of Indian Authority (FSSAI) had notified that camel meat was not food.
Animals cannot be slaughtered for meat.
Some leaders also support Rabaris.
Vinod Chavda, BJP MP from Kutch, wrote to the Amravati collector that Rabaris is the nomadic and rear camels for transportation.
Dr.
Vikas Mahathme, a member of the BJP Rajya Sabha and Dhangars leader, a Maharashtra Shepherd community, also supports Rabaris.
A similar letter has come from a member of the National Commission from DR Rajulaben Desai, which comes from Desesa at Kutch.
Gram Panchayat Makardhokra Village in Umred Tehsil also supports that Rabaris lives there, and names several of them who have camels.
Three Panchayats at Kutch also support this claim.
Shepherds said the camel was stored in a cow protection after the actions of starving police.
Animals are being fed for animal feed, which are not used to.
They asked permission to allow camels to be taken to graze under police protection.
Rabaris’s way of life initially belonged to Kutch.
Those who live in Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh have migrated here at least 40 years ago because of drought in Gujarat.
Usually rear sheep, they keep camels for transportation.
In this case, the group argued that camels were brought to their settlements in Wardha, Nagpur and Raipur.