Bone Dealers Have A Field Day

Livestock is the backbone of Rajasthan's rural economy. At present, a ravaging drought is playing havoc with it in this arid state.

Normally, people escape the wrath of recurring droughts by migrating, along with their animals, to greener pastures of neighbouring Gujarat. This option is not available this time as lack of rains has turned the grazing lands there into dust bowls

Fodder scarcity is a pinching problem. The majority of fodder depots, sanctioned by the state authorities are yet to start working. The private fodder outlets are literally making hay while the sun is shining at 45-46 degrees centigrade.

 

Equally lucrative is the business of bone dealers. Their employees are working overtime to collect and transport animal carcasses to the units, where these are processed into bonemeal, manure and other products. The number of dead animal is sure to swell as the sparse natural vegetation gets depleted with time.

According to S C Soni, a senior district official, 229 fodder depots have been sanctioned for Jodhpur. However, only 78 of these had started functioning till last weekend. Non-governmental organisations were being approached to arrange for procurement and distribution of fodder, he said.

Soni said 1,058 of the total 1,078 villages in Jodhpur had been declared drought-stricken. Administrative sanction had been issued for 937 relief works to employ 45,960 affected people but only 500 such operations, employing about 25,000 people, were in progress, he added.

Disclosing that a central study team had visited the area last January, he said the drought relief work could begin only towards the end of April as "routine official procedures" had to be followed. According to the Central Arid Zone Research Institute experts here, fodder is always in short supply in the desert zone of Rajasthan. But the drought has made the fodder so scarce that the cattle have started dying of starvation.

CAZRI's climatologist A.S. Rao says even in normal monsoon year, only 40 per cent of the fodder requirement is met locally. The rest has to be imported from Punjab, Haryana and other states. The government usually chips in with state-run depots to sell subsidised fodder.

CAZRI director Pratap Narain said the institute was willing to help the state administration in training the farmers in methods of improving animal nutrition to reduce mortality rate. Simple techniques like treating the dry straw with urea to raise the protein level could go a long way in improving animal health.

Narain also offered assistance to the state administration in the development of pastures and silvi-pastoral systems (tree-cum-grass plantations) to alleviate fodder scarcity.

Another livestock specialist of CAZRI, S.K. Kaushish, sees considerable potential in Sewan grass (Lasiurus sindicus) to mitigate the fodder problem. This variety of grass is capable of withstanding droughts for six to seven consecutive years. Though its top dries up during the drought, the roots remain alive. The grass turns green again with the arrival of rains. It also has a high protein content of nearly five per cent and is easily consumed by animals.

This grass is available in abundance in Jaisalmer area during the rains. Since the density of cattle population in this region is low, the surplus supplies could be cut and preserved for the lean season, he suggests.