Twilight of the Pushkar Camel Fair

As modern machinery makes beasts of burden increasingly obsolete, Indian families still eke out a living at Rajasthan's once-great camel festival.

Photos by Serena De Sanctis

On a foggy morning in Pushkar, a small city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, hundreds of people flock to an annual fair to buy and sell camels — the Pushkar ka Mela. Camel handlers, mostly men dressed in colorful turbans, travel from throughout the region. They camp in the deserts and herd their livestock. The animals wear pearl necklaces and bells. The more beautifully adorned the camel is, the greater the chance the handler has of making a sale. Tourists also descend to see what might be the waning years of the camel economy.