The State government has not made any specific Act to protect camels, the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry department informed Telangana High Court.
In a counter affidavit filed in the HC over a PIL petition seeking a direction to the government to protect camels and check their slaughtering, the department Director V. Lakshma Reddy stated that no specific Act to protect camels on the lines of Rajasthan Camel Protection Act was made by the government. The petition came up for hearing by a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy.
Though there was no special Act to protect camels, the State government was enforcing all provisions of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, Mr. Reddy stated. Other rules like Animal Transportation Rules and Slaughter House rules made by the Central government were being implemented in toto by Telangana government, the affidavit said.
Referring to the petitioner’s contention that camels were being transported illegally from Rajasthan to Hyderabad for slaughtering, the director stated that it was an ‘age-old practice of one community to consume camel meat during Ramzan festival month’. However, slaughtering of camels is not allowed in any of the slaughter houses in the State, the director said.
Killing of any animal outside the slaughter house is an illegal activity in the State, the affidavit mentioned. Despite preventive measures by local bodies and the police, illegal transportation of camels was being reported, the director stated. However, ‘very few cases came to the notice of the police’ and the rescued camels had been sent back to Rajasthan.
In the past six years, no specific cases of illegal transportation of camels were registered by the Transport department. Telangana State was not a natural habitat of camel. A few people raise camels as fancy or for joy rides for children, the director stated. As per the Livestock Census-2019, there were 71 camels in the State. The plea came up for hearing on Thursday. The bench posted the hearing to Friday (today) as it had to peruse the documents presented by the government.