The camel has been named “state animal” of Rajasthan, but the planned legislation will undermine pastoralists’ livelihoods. A new website Camels of Rajasthan calls for a different and innovative approach – please have a look! It also features an on-line exhibition of images of Rajasthan’s camel culture, many of them by famous photographers.

On 9th October, Camel Karma. Twenty Years among India’s Camel Nomads will be released at Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur during the Rajasthan International Folk Festival. This book by LPP’s project coordinator Ilse Koehler-Rollefson chronicles her research and work in Rajasthan. More infomation about the book published by Tranquebar Press is here.

LPP’s Ilse Koehler-Rollefson attended the 15th annual meeting of the Inter-agency Livestock Donor Group hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she made the case for donor investment in camel dairying. She also suggested to precede all Public Private Partnerships involving livestock keeping communities with the development of Biocultural Protocols, a tool that has been developed in the context of implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity, but would be useful in mainstream sector interventions as well to ensure that these meet the needs and desires of the “target groups”.