Camel Post Office
The lost heritage of Jaisalmer
Source: Centre for Pastoralism
Illustration: Harpreet Kaur Sokhi
In an interview with Mr. Kishan Singh, one of the camel post messengers in Jaisalmer. Camels are still used by the post offices to deliver mail since 1957.
He tells how camel breeder used to get ₹300 for maintaining the camels. The messenger boy getting just ₹60 and the stationary boy with ₹150. The camels used to bear the postal articles on their back and wait in a particular time of a day in different locations of the desert. People know these timings and come to meet their postal needs from the mobile camel post office functioning in different districts.
The desert's acute climate makes the camel the only reliable source of post mail and transportation. Camels carts are used to deliver goods, in banking and to draw water out of deep water wells.
The entire family and their household equipment migrate on their backs. It is a common sight to see camel caravans with large bags filled with grass to feed.
Today tourists say that one of the most enchanting experiences you can have in India is to ride through the desert on camel back and camp out under the stars but the documentation still is absent for these wonderful mammals.
