Vadodara: Two years ago Shankar Rabari, a youth in Morgar village of Kutch’s Nakhatrana taluka, drove a truck and managed to earn Rs 8,000 a month.
However, he even lost that income during the Covid-19 induced pandemic.
Jobless, Shankar returned to his ‘family business’ and today, earns Rs 32,000 a month as a camel herder! Shankar is one of the several young ‘maldharis’ in Kutch who have retraced their steps to their homestead to eke a living from camel dairying.
The rising popularity of camel milk and its products, thanks to its medical benefits especially for diabetic issues, over the past couple of years has not only given the animals a hope for survival, but also a shot in the arm for its young rearers, particularly the pandemic-hit jobless lot.
A survey carried out by Sahjeevan Trust, a non-profit organisation working towards camel conservation in Gujarat, has revealed that number of milk-giving camels has steadily increased in the arid region.
With the scale of camel milk procurement increasing in the last five years by dairy giant like Amul and also startups like Aadvik Foods, camel herders who used to sell milk for a paltry Rs 15 a litre to local tea stalls have now started fetching Rs 50 a litre.
“Our survey has revealed that number of camels rose to 9,898 in 2020 in Kutch against 8,439 in 2019.
These are camels reared by the herders with whom we work,” said Ramesh Bhatti, anchor, breeding programme at Sahjeevan’s Centre for Pastoralism.
“During the lockdown, many youngsters lost their jobs, but are now earning anywhere from Rs 14,000 to over Rs 1 lakh a month through camel dairying.
In fact, just in Rapar, Nakhatrana, Abdasa, Bhuj, Mundra and Mandvi, 18 youngsters have returned to their villages and joined camel herding.
They are currently pouring 16,556 litres milk through 504 camels for which they have received Rs 8.27 lakh payment,” Bhatti said.
Sarhad Dairy or the Kutch District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited, a member of Amul, has seen 121 % growth in milk procurement since it started procuring milk from the region.
“Initially, we had started with fresh camel milk which was procured in very small quantity and test marketed in Ahmedabad.
But later, with long-life camel milk, we could penetrate deeper.
The camel herders were the major beneficiaries of this exercise as they started getting stable price for their camel milk and an additional source of earning livelihood,” said RS Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that markets brand Amul.
Aadvik Foods, which started procuring camel milk from Gujarat in 2016, has procured more than 8 lakh litres of camel milk from more than 220 camel herders of the region till now.
“Earlier, no other brand was procuring camel milk from Gujarat,” said Hitesh Rathi, founder of Aadvik whose products include milk powder, ghee, chocolates, skincare range and colostrum made from camel milk.
Amul, which has even introduced camel milk ice-cream, procures nearly one lakh litre milk a month for its range of products.
“Taste-wise camel milk is slightly saltier as compared to cow or buffalo milk, but it has immense benefits.
It has started gaining popularity, especially in the diabetic segment,” said Sodhi.