The Camel

Without exaggeration the camel has been the most ignoring specie among the ruminants in Pakistan. It has been remained the victim of deliberate neglect and disregard of scientists along with development workers for a long time. There were fewer efforts in terms of planning and research on it to improve its productivity. Had it been a useless and unproductive animal its population would have diminished gradually but it is steadily increasing the other way round. Now internationally there is a growing awareness in respect of camel as it has been termed and considered as a “food security animal”. However a resurgence of interest has been shown in the last two decades for this specie. Pakistan has a sizable population of 1.1 million camels so it should be more than enough to make us realize our responsibilities towards multi-purpose domestic camel specie. In spite of much urbanization in the country its population is increasing and has not shown a downward trend so this fact clearly speaks the usefulness of one humped camel in Pakistan. It is high time to investigate its peculiarities and to exploit its productive potential especially in terms of milk and meat.