Drought causes massive animal migration from Thar

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Shahid Husain
MITHI: At least 60 per cent large animals (cows, camels and horses) and 50 per cent small animals (sheep and goats) have migrated from Tharparkar to greener pastures due to severe drought, according to Dr Lachman, a veterinary doctor associated with the Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP), a non-governmental organisation.

“Drought will be declared in Thar if there is no rainfall by August 15,” he said. “There was scant rainfall in June and July last year and crops were destroyed,” he told The News.

“By November, pastures had dried up and today you will find animals eating a toxic plant called ‘san’ which locks their jaws,” he said.

Animal population in Tharparkar is 4.5 million as compared to 1.2 million humans, a ratio of 4:1. The economy of the great desert bordering Rajasthan in India is largely dependent on livestock.

In 2009, Dr Lachman said, livestock in Tharparkar was infected with ‘pest des petites’, a deadly disease in which mortality rate is 100 per cent, but the TRDP was able to identify it around Eid and undertook a vaccination campaign.

“But despite that around 1,200 small animals died. Had there been no vaccination campaign, the mortality would have been in the range of 30,000 to 40,000 animals,” he said.

A sheep/goat fetches Rs4,500-5,000 in Tharparkar but its price has dropped to Rs2,500-3,000 due to weight loss. “But it is heartening that the deadly disease has been brought under control,” he said.

Dr Mohan Lal, a veterinary doctor in Islamkot, said the major disease in sheep and goats was enterotoxaemia, diarrhea and bloody diarrhea, which struck in June and July at the time of rainfall.

“Thari cattle yields 400 kg of meat on an average and 60,000 animals go to the Karachi market every month from Tharparkar,” he said.

Livestock population in Tharparkar, he said, comprised 2.5 million sheep and goats, 500,000-600,000 cattle, 400,000 camels and about 400,000 donkeys and horses. “But at least 30 per cent of these animals had migrated to barrage areas by March from Islamkot alone as a result of the drought,” he said.

With a desert area of 22,000 square kilometers, agriculture in Tharparkar is entirely dependent on rains, which come between July and September and are in the range of 200 to 300 millimeters in normal years.

Sowing is done immediately after first rains. The main crop is Bajra, which matures in 70-75 days. However, more than one shower, preferably three, is required to produce a good crop.

Consequently, light rains spread over two months produce better results than heavy showers. In addition to Bajra, which formed until recently the staple diet of the people there, Til, Gowar and cluster beans are grown. Stalks of the crops are used as supplementary feed for animals, according to noted architect and town planner Arif Hasan who has written extensively on Tharparkar.

However, most of the wells have dried up because there have been thin rains. “In union councils Pithapur and Nagarparkar, wells are the major source of water and there is no sweet water below 60 feet because these wells are charged by rainfall,” said Dr Lachman.

“The scarcity of water can be gauged from the fact that women have to travel six to seven km to fetch water,” he said. “In village Dedrai in Nagarparkar, both humans and animals are dependent on contaminated water of a pond,” he added.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=172825