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”.

LPP’s co-founder, Dr. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, and Hanwant Singh, director of LPP’s long-standing partner organisation in Rajasthan, Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan jointly received the Marwar Ratna Award 2013 for “Exceptional and Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Conservation, Preservation and Promotion of Regional Culture and Heritage”, presented by H.H. Maharajah Gaj Singhji II of Jodhpur on 12th May, 2014. The award honoured their efforts over two decades to save Rajasthan’s camels as well as the associated Raika culture.
Recently the Government of Rajasthan anounced its intention to declare the camel as state animal of Rajasthan, as well as a number of far reaching interventions to protect it.