Help in Suffering (HIS) Pushkar Camel Camp Report

Pushkar is one of the oldest cities of India. It is famous for its temples and ghaats (a place of a river of lake where people take bath). Traders and villagers from all over Rajasthan and neighbouring states gather with thousands of camels for trading. Pushkar fair is one of the most popular and colourful fairs of the ‘Thar’ desert of Rajasthan, is held in Pushkar. Traders and villagers from all over Rajasthan and neighbouring states gather with thousands of camels for trading.  Nearly 3,000 camels were assembled this year from all over northern India. Animal Aid Abroad partner group, Help In Suffering (HIS) organized a week long free Camel treatment camp at the fair from 31st October to 07th November 2022.

Team composition

Vets-                     Dr. Abhinav Swami, Dr Jitendar Jhingonia

Compounders-   Rajendra, Bhagwandas, Lalchand , Mohit, Dilpal.

A total number of 587 camels were treated for various clinical problems. 220 camels were de-wormed to reduce the gastric worm load. Camel owners were advised to follow the de-worming schedule for at least once in three months to keep their camels healthy.

A large proportion of camels were suffering from different wounds like nose peg wounds, saddle sore wounds, leg injuries, eye injuries, punctured foot pad wounds etc. Treating Nose peg wound injuries was the major challenge to the team as each and every owner was explained the significance importance of plastic nose pegs over the wooden and metal ones.

Majority of the other cases presented to the camp had gastric disturbances which mainly include simple indigestion along with few cases of diarrhea, colic, and impaction. Sudden change in feed and water, stress due to long journey and diurnal variations of temperature during the fair are the main factors responsible for gastric problems.

Mange is a very common disease of camels. This year 368 camels were treated for it.

Camel carts are very much prone to road accidents on highways because of their invisibility during night. To prevent these accidents reflectors were fixed to 254 camel carts by HIS team.

746 educational leaflets were distributed to camel owners to make them understand about better management practices & caring of their camels.