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Camels in for exclusive care

HELP ON WHEELS: An ambulance especially designed for rescuing ailing camels being launched by Rajasthan Minister of State for Tourism Usha Punia in Jaipur.

JAIPUR: The Ship of the Desert is in for some luck in this State identified with the animal, as Rajasthan is getting ready to have a hospital exclusively for camels. Help in Suffering (HIS), an animal welfare organisation, has come up with the idea of the hospital which would have a camel rescue centre along with it at Bassi on the Jaipur-Agra highway.

The Bassi complex would house the first well-equipped hospital for camels in India and provide 24-hour free treatment, including operations and hospitalisation.

The work on the hospital will start by the end of this month and is expected to be complete by the year-end. A Switzerland-based organisation, ELSU Foundations, which last week gifted HIS a hydraulic van for rescue of ailing camels, has promised funds for the hospital. Animoux Sccours of France has also expressed its willingness to support the hospital.

“Rajasthan is synonymous with the camel and we thought it is high time something is done to improve its condition. The hospital is meant for camels but any big animal can be treated there. We will have facilities for stay of camel owners as they generally are averse to the idea of leaving behind their animals,” Timmie Kumar, managing trustee of HIS, said. “We decided to locate the hospital in Bassi as many camel carts pass through this road carrying wood and stones .”

HIS has been working for the welfare of animals in and around Jaipur for the past 28 years. Its attention turned to camel welfare in 2001. Since then HIS has been instrumental in fixing reflectors on 9000 camel carts to protect them from road accidents at night.

“When HIS started this project the camels were suffering from mange, saddle soar and nose peg wounds. The HIS camel team then started educating camel owners on management practices to keep the animal healthy,” Pradeep Singhal, Project in-charge HIS, said.

To solve problems of nose peg wounds and saddle soar, HIS is distributing free plastic nose pegs to the camel owners. It is encouraging the owners to put up the saddle properly and in the right manner by not overloading the cart.

Rajasthan Minister of State for Tourism Usha Punia last week launched the camel ambulance — a custom-made, well-fabricated hydraulic vehicle — in the presence of a large number of animal lovers at Maharani Farm in the State capital.

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Camels in for exclusive care

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