The Northern Territory Government has announced an emergency cull as the outback community of Docker River comes under siege from thousands of marauding feral camels.

It is common to see some feral camels in the Indigenous community, 500 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, but numbers have spiked as thirsty camels invade peoples' homes in search of water.

"The community of Docker River is under siege by 6,000 marauding wild camels," NT Local Government Minister Rob Knight said.

"They are intruding on the private properties of residents, they are damaging infrastructure, they have knocked down fencing at the air strip."

The chief executive of the local shire, Graham Taylor, says the situation is dire because children in Docker River could be injured by the camels.

"I think the words 'under siege' are good words because it talks about people being stuck in their homes and looking out and seeing just numbers of camels at your front door," he said.

"And if they get anxious and want more water and stick their head through the window, I suppose you've then got another problem, so they're still chasing the water."

The Territory Government is spending $50,000 on a cull in the next week.

Helicopters will herd the camels 15 kilometres outside the community where they will be shot and left to decay.

Camel management plan

It is estimated there are more than 1 million camels roaming through a vast area in the outback.

The chief executive of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association, Luke Bowen, says pastoralists in the north are fed up with the damage being caused to their stations.

"This is a plague of biblical proportions laying waste to a sensitive and arid environment," he said.

"It has been something that has been too hard to deal with; it's been duck-shoved around from state to state and nobody has been able to stand up and cooperatively, collectively do anything about it."

In August, the Federal Government announced a $19 million grant for camel control to go to the corporate arm of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research centre.

But the company is yet to receive the money because the contract is still under negotiation.

Mr Bowen says bureaucracy is getting in the way.

"As a pastoral industry we are watching very carefully to ensure that our problems are not ignored and that we are not going to see more studies, more consultation but no action," he said.

"We have to have action; we have to have it now."

But the head of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, Jan Ferguson, says preparing a camel control program in four states takes time and consultation is essential.

"You can't start a project without a contract; you can't start a project without a plan, and we're in the process of doing that," she said.

"It's not a very long time at all since all of this was negotiated, and we'll work through it and we'll have a thorough plan."

Ms Ferguson says even with the $19 million program in place, other measures to control feral camels will still be needed.