Rajasthan – Pelican Yoga

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#14 in series: almost “curtains” for India’s camels & their kindly herders?)

Published September 23, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#14 in series: almost “curtains” for India’s camels & their kindly herders?)

Globally, camel numbers are “exploding”, but India’s population is a small fraction of what it was half a century ago; it is still declining, rapidly.

India’s camels might be in the process of “disappearing”, along with a globally-unique and uncommonly-benevolent approach to camel husbandry.

Rajasthan – specifically, its part of the Thar Desert – has always accounted for most of India’s camels.

It is also home to most of the Raikas; for many generations they have revered, herded, trained, milked and bred camels. (and sheep).

Members of this indigenous tribe/cultural group abhor the very idea of killing or mistreating camels.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#13 in series: “ship of the desert”, in “giraffe mode”)

Published September 20, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#13 in series: “ship of the desert”, in “giraffe mode”)

So many things which are oft-said about camels – and widely-believed – are simply untrue.

“Australia has the world’s largest camel population” is a ludicrous assertion; many other countries have many more camels.

However, another oft-made claim – that more camels now live in Australia than in Egypt – probably is true.

Australia almost certainly has the largest population of feral camels…all of the same species as the individual pictured above, in Rajasthan – Camelus dromedarius, the dromedary.

It is sometimes (wrongly) called “the Arabian camel”.

Currently, more than 90% of “our” planet’s camels are dromedaries.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#12: counting sheep)

Published September 17, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#12: counting sheep)

Per hectare, sheep are more populous in Rajasthan’s portion of the Thar Desert than is true of sheep, per hectare, across Australia.

Much the greater portion of the Thar Desert’s circa 264,000 square kilometres is in western India, mostly in Rajasthan. (circa 60% of the Thar Desert is within Rajasthan)

Sheep numbers are highly variable, and hugely difficult to count, accurately.

That said, circa 8 million of Rajasthan’s sheep live in the Thar Desert, as do circa 30 million humans.

On a “per unit area” basis, no other desert on earth goes remotely close to matching those figures.

As this post’s images illustrate, the ways in which Rajasthan’s humans “manage” their livestock (and land) are utterly unlike what Australian humans regard as “normal”.

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“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#11 in series: hardy sheep)

Published September 15, 2026 by Pelidoug

“Domesticated”: unwild animals (#11 in series: hardy sheep)

Some domesticated sheep (and their owners) survive – even thrive – in astonishingly “difficult” environments .

The pictured individual is a member of a well-tended flock in a desert that is home to enormously more humans than most of the world’s humans would regard as remotely “possible”

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Grand sands (#25 in series: DIY housing, Thar Desert)

Published January 9, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#25 in series: DIY housing, Thar Desert)

As last updated on 02 January 2025, on www.WA.gov.au:

If you are thinking about owner-building your own home or small commercial building, you will need to have been granted owner-builder approval from the Building Services Board before you can be granted a building permit from your local government authority.

Indian bureaucracy is globally-notorious, but in at least some parts of Rajasthan, the “DIY housing sector” is subject to very much less “regulation” than is Western Australia’s.

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Grand sands (#24 in series: Thar Desert’s underground “celebrity”)

Published January 8, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#24 in series: Thar Desert’s underground “celebrity”)

The mammalian world’s biggest family – the rodents – includes six genera which (collectively) contain at least 110 living species of “gerbil”

Some of them – on their own turf, at least – are more commonly known as “jirds”.

Jirds are members of the genus Meriones.

As is generally true of gerbils, jirds live in deserts, and other “arid” or “semi-arid” places.

Unsurprisingly, most are nocturnal; but not the Indian desert jird, Meriones hurrianae.

One Indian blogger has described this post’s highly atypical hero as the tiny musketeer of Rajasthan’s Thar Desert.

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Grand sands (#23 in series: “The Great Indian Desert”)

Published January 7, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#23 in series: “The Great Indian Desert”)

The Thar Desert’s other name accords with reality: it is India’s biggest desert, although 15% of it is in Pakistan.

Most of it – around 60% – is in Rajasthan; the Thar Desert occupies a little more than 60% of India’s largest state, by area

According to most sources, around 40% of Rajasthan’s human population live within the Thar Desert.

Rajasthan is far from India’s most populous state, but it is currently home to more than 80 million humans.

Unsurprisingly, the Thar Desert is “our” planet’s most densely populated desert, by a large margin.

It is also remarkably rich in wildlife.

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Quirky moments (#5 in series: cowtown/metropolis)

Published August 15, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#5 in series: cowtown/metropolis)

The relevant city’s metropolitan population is approximately “Brisbane’s plus Adelaide’s” – well in excess of four million humans.

It is a safe bet that its “other large mammals’ combined population” would comfortably exceed that of all Australian cities.

What you are looking at would be “inconceivable” within an Australian CBD, but to those who reside in Rajasthan’s capital (and largest) city, this would be an unremarkable sight.

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