India’s famous Pushkar Camel Fair returns after the COVID holiday | Gallery News

Hundreds of herdsmen and their livestock have gathered in the Pushkar desert city of Rajasthan state in India for the largest camel trade in the country.

The city attracts thousands of Hindu pilgrims, cattle ranchers and pastors at the annual festival, which was suspended in 2020 due to the plague.

At this meeting, camel herdsmen sometimes travel hundreds of miles from their villages to sell their animals.

The 13-day exhibition, which opened on Monday, coincides with a number of good days on the Hindu calendar, adding to the crowd coming to the prestigious coastal city.

“Pushkar is all about cattle trade and religious rituals,” Prafull Mathur from the Rajasthan Department of Animal Husbandry told AFP.

“The situation with COVID-19 has not been stable but we are still hoping for better recovery,” added Mathur.

Designers often have camel breeding competitions, which are very attractive to both domestic and foreign visitors, but the government has not yet said whether the competition will be allowed this year.

The show is the only time of the year when camel farmers – many of whom live in remote, desert-dwelling areas – can earn enough money to survive.

Camels are widely purchased by people from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for use on their farms or as a means of transportation. Other animals, including horses, are also bought and sold at the festival.

Indian security forces sent to the Pakistani border also use camels to guard the area.

To help the remote camel farms become more profitable, the government has been working hard to promote camel milk, camel skin, and camel bones.

A well-known camel herdsman in the area, Raikas, believes that the Hindu god Shiva was responsible for herding camels.