HIS Camel Rescue Centre

New Help in Suffering Camel Rescue Centre in need of help

Just one story among the many that Dr Pradeep Singhal Encounters Every Day

Sita Ram approached Help In Suffering on 28th August, having come from Balawala, a village near Jaipur. He told the HIS camel team that his camel was hit by a vehicle one month previously, and that subsequently the camel was not able to walk. Sita Ram explained the cause for his delayed approach to HIS was his lack of awareness of the camel project in Jaipur.

Immediately we rushed to his village. The camel was lying on the ground and was in immense pain. There was a complete and compound fracture of the cannon bone of the right fore limb. We explained that there was no remedy available for this condition.

Sita Ram told us that the camel had been serving his family for 15 years. He and his family were in deep sorrow when I explained the fate of the poor camel.

We euthanized the camel to give complete relief from intense pain. Sita Ram refused to take any compensation.

I wish as a vet I could have saved this camel’s life but the broken long bone had left no options.

Dr. Pradeep Singhal

A new Camel Rescue Centre is now functioning. View its Work.

The ELSU Foundation, Switzerland, donated funds to enable Help in Suffering to purchase land and build a Camel Rescue Centre, about one hours’ drive from Jaipur, in the outlying village of Bassi on the Agra Road, an area where many camels work and live.

Mr. Ravi Gupta, one of India’s leading architects, offered to donate his time for design and construction of the Camel Rescue Centre. A Gandhian, he has built a simple, sustainable but well-constructed shelter which, although focussing on the needs of camels, also helps other animals in an area where there is no animal shelter whatsoever.

There is so much need for assistance to camels and the marginalised families who own them and work them and struggle to survive on the meagre income the camel brings. Dr. Deepak Aasiwal is the new vet at the Camel Rescue centre, where he is based full-time, living in the grounds with his family.

Most village families feel a great love for the camel which labours to provide them with an income. Such a camel may live and work with the family for a decade or more, and, if misfortune should occur, such as a road or foot injury, the family is likely to be grief-stricken by such an event. If the HIS vet decides there is no future for the camel, and that the injuries are too great for the camel to be able to work again, then, after consulting with the owner and gaining his agreement, the vet will euthanase the animal, and give a small compensation to the family. If the life of a camel is saved, the village people will often bring a gift of peanuts or lentils from one of the crops they have sown, even though they need the food for their own family.

The most common problems are inappetance, lameness, stomatitis, wounds (mostly nose peg wounds, saddle sore and punctured foot pad), skin infections like mange and ticks, gastric problems like diarrhoea, colic and eye infections.

There are no documents which list the number of camels killed or injured on the roads of Rajasthan. Because nobody bothers about this fact except HIS. But HIS is limited by funds and staff, and can only reach areas in and around Jaipur and occasionally far -flung areas during special fairs where camels congregate for buying, selling and display.

Dr. Pradeep Singhal (pictured right) has headed the HIS Camel Rescue Project for the last five years.

Thanks to Animaux Secours (Arthaz, France), the sister society of Help in Suffering, Jaipur, who has assisted so greatly over the years in funding for the HIS Camel Project.

But the project, which helps the poorest of the poor, is constantly in need of funds, due to the cost of running a mobile clinic, employing a vet and two assistants, and supplying drugs, equipment and information to the camel owners so much in need of help.

Mrs Timmie Kumar, Managing Trustee, Help in Suffering

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