Nomadic Gujjar’s Annual Migration

Enroute the destinations of summer and winter pastureslocated in Himalayan highlands and Jammu foothills respectively, gujjar nomadictribes face an enormous amount of hardship and hostility. They come intocontact with settled population and commuters enroute who don’t always have areceptive attitude towards them on account of the traffic jamming caused bycattle. But this wasn’t so until very recently. They have had well defined offroad routes for movement of cattle. Even when they used roads, they didn’t facemuch of a problem on account of very less traffic. But things have drasticallychanged. Developmental activities have erased their routes at multiplelocations on all known routes. At many places there is no mark of old routesleft because of construction of roads, buildings, bridges, forest closures andchange of land use in villages. All these things have effectively blocked theirroutes and pushed them to use roads and new routes. This has resulted in anenvironment of conflict with the enroute population and commuters. Besides, theexpansion of population and increased developmental activities have practicallyshrunk the green lands and vegetation enroute to sustain cattle during a longjourney that spans over a month either side. To overcome this, some of themopted to transport cattle on trucks but this too was met with new types ofchallenges which sometimes they can’t circumvent. And transporting a largeflock of bovine animals is practically not possible. They have to spendapproximately 40 days enroute to cope up with climate. The large flocks can’tafford to delay the start of upward journey beyond 20th March and the passes onupper Pir Panchal don’t open earlier than 20 April. So they have to be inbetween winter pastures and mountain passes for a month.

The above problems have resulted in pushing some of them toabandon their profession all together. But on account of being landless a veryhigh number of them has opted to adopt a profession of labourers pitching tentsin open lands. Lower Shivalik and orchards in Kashmir are dotted with suchsingle tent homes. But even there, they practice internal localized migrationalmost every year. They decamp to pitch the tents again at other locationswhere they get some work to do. Having left their nomadic way of life they couldn’tfind honorable outlet. The majority of them, with whom I could interact, isdismayed at their decision. They feel nostalgic about their previous lifestyle. They feel, despite hardship, being a nomad was a far better activity asit entailed independence and a sense of pride. But the hard fact remains, theyare frequently joined by those who are leaving the age old practice.

   

Now the question is, whether abandoning an age old activitybe encouraged just because it’s becoming cumbersome or the focus should shiftto upgrading this profession by encouraging investment in this activity and byregistering state support. An interesting thing, perhaps, is to learn lessonsfrom the treatment of nomadic tribes in developed countries.

Those who suggest to help nomads settle permanently shouldbear in mind that this is not just a profession; it’s a way of life carryingwith it an enormous amount of cultural values. It’s not just about cattle, it’sabout a great treasure in the forms of pastures that they are proud to possess.Pastures like Tosemaidan, Nagberri, Wardwan, Suez, Padri and Srimastan, to namejust a few, are among the world’s most beautiful places. These belong tonomads. Similarly the beautiful green forests and shrubs located in undulatinglandscape of Shivalik and Jammu foothills constitute their winter pastures.This is a time immemorial activity. Just that it didn’t get system’s supportand community backing doesn’t mean it’s something not worth pursuing. What isrequired is an up-gradation of this activity to a next level to make it botheconomical beneficial and socially honorable again. The following steps canprove to be fundamentally critical to augment this activity.

One, the support should come by means of strengtheningexisting facilitation centres; the non-existent and inept facilitation centersshould be made accountable enroute. The facilitation so far has had just onefunction: get their share in the form of a sheep or two depending upon size offlock. A more working facilitation point should include a conflict resolvingteam from departments like police and revenue also so that they don’t face anyproblems. The facilitation points located along roads need to be supplementedwith more resources, and some mobile facilitation must be added.

Two, routes should be earmarked for their movements. Societymust understand that it has swallowed up their tracks and it just can’t do wellto vomit them outside their boundaries. They are inseparable part of theirecology and have added value and vigor to the culture. State should own up andgive them space to move. Those among the tribe who have tendency of finding ashort cut should be made not to do that.

Third, most of them just don’t find their productseconomically beneficial. It’s because they don’t know how to process and marketthem. Like, for instance, wool, skin of animals, milk and milk products if properly processed, preserved andmarketed can prove to be fate changer. Here they need training and properguidance from sheep and animal husbandry departments. The training shouldinclude programs to help them make most out of their products bydiversification of base products. Unless they diversify and process they willnever find raw products economically beneficial

Fourth, there is need of a community owned and operatedcooperative to ensure that they have say in the transaction of their products,particularly milk. They do find good market for milk during winters but theydon’t find any taker when they reach high land during summer. Enroute also theyaren’t able to sell their products. A diary, mobile and dynamic in character,must have ability to fetch their products from where they are and market it.

Fifth, If this activity will have to be upgraded and itshonour restored, the well to do and educated lot among the community will haveto become part of it, own nomads, invest in it and feel proud being part of it.

To conclude, the way ahead is upgradation and augmentationof nomadic activity rather than finding fault with it and depriving ourselvesof a great cultural stream that is connected to snow clad peaks of Himalaya onthe one hand and Indian plains on the other. Between these extremes theirforefathers have not only traversed with cattle but as harbingers of a greattribal culture also.

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