THE DONKEYS ARE VANISHING

In a state known more for its lions, Gujarat may not automatically evoke the more humdrum image of the donkey, the four legged beast trapped on the opposite side of human valuation.

- Jumana Shah

Least of all, concerns related to their falling numbers. But take the old dusty road down to Vautha village, bang in the centre of Gujarat, where Ahmedabad district brushes against the borders of Kheda, and what strikes you with a sudden pathos is the sense of a species-level crisis, of how close another familiar animal figure is to leaving behind an ecological void.

Vautha hosts an annual mela that’s like a national trade fair for donkeys. But Mahendrasinh Mandora, former sarpanch of Vautha, expresses uncertainty about the event’s future. Ever since the Vautha Lok Melo commenced six decades ago, it has traditionally attracted over 20,000 donkeys from Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and all over Gujarat. But the numbers have been declining sharply: this year, it notched up less than 4,000. Even that was a slight dip over last year. This matches the alarming decline in overall population, nationally and in Gujarat. According to the last livestock census, the state’s donkey population plummeted by 71 percent from 38,993 in 2012 to 11,291 in 2019. Nationally, the decline stands at 62 percent, from 320,000 in 2012 to 120,000 in 2019.