Camel Karma

In 1979, on a field trip to Jordan, the German veterinarian Ilse Köhler-Rollefson became fascinated by the bond between pastoral peoples and the camels they lived alongside. She was already disillusioned by the assembly-line way animals were raised back home, and she sensed she had found something important, though hardly anyone shared her interest.

A little over ten years later she arrived in India. There she stopped being only an academic and became a representative of the Raika of Rajasthan. The Raika's relationship with their camels was the stuff of legend, providing them with sustenance, wealth and, just as importantly, companionship. But it was struggling to survive in a fast-changing world.

For Ilse, the Raika offered a glimpse of Rajasthan's history and culture and a way forward in her own life. Hoping to save both the camel and the Raika way of life, she and her spirited ally, Hanwant Singh Rathore, travelled from city veterinary labs to Raika settlements in the farthest corners of the Thar Desert and everywhere in between. Bureaucratic and cultural dilemmas kept arising and demanded creative answers, and as the two adapted, their orthodox Raika friends adapted alongside them.

Camel Karma is a first-hand account, full of unexpected turns, of the decades-long struggle of Rajasthan's desert nomads to find a place in modern India.