In the Pali district of Rajasthan lives the Raika community, a pastoral community that has been herding camels for centuries.

Germany’s Dr Ilse Köhler-Rollefson has been associated with them for decades now and has watched the community evolve over the years.

The camels once had great value attached to them. They were traded as modes of transport at the Pushkar Mela — an annual multi-day livestock fair dating back to the 19th century.

But in 2014, things changed. The camel was declared as the state animal of Rajasthan and trading was stopped.

Despite being good news for the camels, it impaired the source of livelihood of the Raika community.

This is where Camel Charisma, a social enterprise co-founded by Dr Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, a PhD scholar in veterinary medicine,  and Hanwant Singh Rathore, a Rajasthani local, steps in.

They are developing, promoting and marketing environment-friendly products sourced from the camel.

Camel Charisma is credited with setting up Rajasthan’s first dedicated camel dairy ‘Kumbalgarh’ Camel Dairy in 2019.

However, Rathore says it took years of meetings, and talks with the community priests and elders to encourage them to heed the advice to turn to camel for dairy.

Just when the community was beginning to trust them, a 1999 order by the Rajasthan High Court noted that camel milk wasn’t good for human consumption. Led by Rathore, a team appealed to the Supreme Court and the order was soon overruled.

But Rathore did not stop there. He kept persisting until in 2016, camel milk was recognised as a food product by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

While empowering the Raika community of Rajasthan through the sale of camel milk, Camel Charisma has managed to become a home name and clocks monthly sales of over 3,000 litres of camel milk across India.

While the dairy is one arm of Camel Charisma, a cheese-making unit churns out delicious feta that finds fans in guests at the Lake Palace, Udaipur.

The wool-making unit turns wool into fibres that are spun into dhurries (rugs). Meanwhile, the paper-making unit produces paper from the dung of Kumbhalgarh camels.