The Brooke - Brooke in India

Country profile

The vast Indian sub-continent covers an area of 1.2 million square miles and has diverse terrain. From the mountainous foothills of the Himalayas and Uttar Pradesh, to the lush rainforests of the South, the temperatures vary from searing heat in the summer to heavy monsoon rains and bitter cold in the winter.

India is the world's largest democracy and second most populous country. Its 1.2 billion population holds a growing urban population and a broad range of modern industries, including technology services, engineering goods and chemicals. However, many of India’s population still eke a living through agriculture and the majority of this rural population remains impoverished*.

The often difficult terrain and climate help to create a tough environment for working horses and donkeys in India. These animals still play a major part in agricultural livelihoods and are commonly used for both transport and pulling loads.

Current situation

Many people who depend on working horses, donkeys and mules for a living (an average of five or more per working horse,donkey or mule in rural areas) face real problems in rearing their animals.

Animals often become sick because of a lack of proper food and clean water - their owners simply can’t afford to provide them. Financial pressures also force owners to overwork their animals.

Adequately trained people with knowledge and experience in treating working horses, donkeys and mules are hard to find. Central Government does advise on animal husbandry policies but it is the State Governments who are responsible for promoting it.

Unfortunately, when we look at the situation at district level, we are finding that vet hospitals, dispensaries and mobile treatment facilities do exist, but are generally under resourced and ill-equipped. The good news is, we are playing an important part in improving the situation.

Making a difference

The overall goal of the project is to measurably improve the welfare of working horses, donkeys and mules in India.

Today, to help achieve this goal, we have teams in Delhi and eleven districts of Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest concentration of working horses, donkeys and mules in India. We also work in Andhra Pradesh, Uttarkhand and Rajasthan through local partners.

Encouraging good animal welfare in communities © Amit Pasricha

In 2009 and continuing in 2010 we will be:

making sure that sustainable, good quality vet services are available to, and used by, working horses, donkeys and mules
ensuring that sustainable resources (water, feed, shade, saddlery, farriery, carts, etc.) are available for the benefit of working animals
continuing to encourage animal-owning communities to adopt welfare friendly management practices
influencing the government animal husbandry department to give proportionate focus to the welfare of working horses and donkeys

Brooke India reports that owners in many of the communities in which it works are taking increased responsibility for the welfare of their animals.

In 2009 we reached almost 130,000 working horses, donkeys and mules.

* BBC World Service country profile