Sustaining Pastoral Livelihoods in J&K: Challenges and Recommendations

Introduction

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been an abode of the Himalayan mountains rife with abundant natural resources. There is an abundance of production in fruits, spices, flowers, dry fruits, wool, and cold fish in the region. Jammu & Kashmir has the world’s largest transhumant population with 6.12 lakhs in numbers. With the Kashmiris and Dogras forming most of the population in this region of the Himalayan valley, the Gujjars and Bakarwals form the third largest ethnicity in the region. Gujjars rear large ruminants such as cows and buffaloes, where Bakarwals are goat and sheep herdsmen. The Chopans are the semi-nomads who are into the traditional rearing of sheep for meat and wool in Kashmir. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that recognize climate action to preserve the environment while sustaining the livelihood of the vulnerable, migrating, and nomadic communities. At this hour, the pastoralists of Jammu & Kashmir who largely migrate every year need to be inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. 

Milk production in Jammu & Kashmir

In the agrarian economy of the Union Territory, the value of the milk economy in Jammu & Kashmir is Rs 9080 crores. The annual milk production of Jammu & Kashmir is 25.14 lakhs metric tonnes. Though 95% of the milk distribution in this region is still underorganized area, the concerned authorities and stakeholders are trying their best to push Jammu & Kashmir to witness the white revolution sustainably. Pastoralists have a huge contribution to make in this regard. Though they have contributed least to climate change, they are suffering the most from its deleterious effects. The average annual milk productivity per cow is estimated to rise from 2380 to 4300 litres by the year 2027. 

Pastoralism in Kashmir Valley

The Gujjar and Bakarwal pastoralists live in the scattered valleys and alpine meadows of Jammu & Kashmir. The paucity of water resources and green pastures/fodder during winters for livestock in the Upper Himalayas compels them to move towards the Jammu province while rearing small ruminants like sheep and goats. Most of them are engaged in rearing goats, sheep and buffalo. They sell milk in the local market to earn their livelihood. With continuous movement, the unacceptance of milk in the nearest milk cooperative at the village level has led to the exploitation of herdsmen by private dairies. Lack of market value chain, logistics, demand and supply of such milk, milk products, manure, hair and wool and woollen products prevents them to sell their products at a good price. Insufficient resources for skill development and training of these tribal pastoralists in the valley make them choose pastoralism as a source of livelihood for generations. Due to such biannual transhumance, there is reluctance by the government authorities to provide them grants in the long term. 

Gujjars – the cow and buffalo keepers

Gujjar is an ethnic pastoral community of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The community has a strong presence in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Gujjars are mostly settled at the lower slopes and valleys of the Pir-Panjal and the Shivalik hills, where ecological conditions are suitable for their nomadic pastoral economy, especially during winters. The important areas of Gujjars and Bakarwal settlement concentration in Jammu District are Jandrah, Jahri, Grota, Golad, Charwal, Samoo, Rathi and Bindi and Upper Samba hills. The Gujjars are also highly concentrated in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu province. Gujjars are of three categories – settled, half settled and homeless Gujjars. The settled Gujjars stay in one place and work in agriculture. Half-settled Gujjars are those who though live in villages and do agriculture but for six months of summer, they leave for Pir Panjal Gujjar region and move further to Drass and Kargil with their cattle where pastures are available for grazing. The homeless Gujjars can be further divided into two tribes – Dodhi/Banjara Gujjars and Bakarwal Gujjars. These people keep buffaloes and lead a nomadic life. In summer, these tribal pastoralists move to the lower areas – Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua in Jammu province and Pathankot and Gurdaspur in Punjab with the flock of buffaloes. The Gujjars in Jammu City are spread around Akhnoor Road and Rajpura Mandi. When the summer sets in and the snow starts melting, these people start moving to the heights of the Himalayas where green grass is available sufficiently for their cattle. Gujjars are the milk producers in the Jammu region due to the sub-tropical climate. Their staple diet includes dairy products such as milk, curd, cheese, kalari, karan and lassi. They dry cheese in sunlight and then use it in winter. Dahi plays a major customary role in the Gujjar marriage rituals. They sell milk and ghee for their livelihood. 

Milk – a priceless commodity for Gujjars

A Gujjar household with milk buffaloes and a son is considered to be illustrious. Gujjars consider milk very pious and do not let it get wasted. Gujjars honour milk more than respecting the elders. In spite of the community belief, Fareed Bhai, a Gujjar from Rajpura Mandi Morh, cites the plight and the loss incurred in milk production of 60-70 Gujjar milk producers in the Jammu region. Each family usually has 50-80 buffaloes. He states that 5000 litres of milk are produced every day from 15-20 milch buffaloes owned by each family. Due to the transhumant lifestyle, Gujjar milk producers do not have access to refrigerators and in summer it becomes tough to keep milk without refrigeration for long. It gets spoilt within a few hours. Sometimes the dairy farmers keep ice cubes around the fresh milk or leave milk containers near the canals, where they inhabit. This leads to theft. With the increasing cost of fodder and green grass for buffaloes, it is tough to manage and rear buffaloes in the present times. With the lack of dairy plants nearby and proper marketing channels, milk processing has become a huge challenge. They are unable to sell milk in the markets at the right price choice. 

The day of a Gujjar milk producer begins with waking up at 4 am, getting milk from buffaloes, collecting all the milk, and mostly keeping them near the canal for a few hours for preservation. If the milk fails to reach the markets in Jammu city on time, it gets spoilt. This compels the Gujjar milk producers to make kaladi/cheese out of them, but at times they throw them away in the canals when the milk is of no use. These dairy farmers prefer to prepare ghee, butter, kaladi in winter than in summer. Thus with such continuous struggle, the lives of Gujjar milk producers of Jammu have not improved much. With a low rate of milk and increasing expenditures, making education affordable for their children becomes difficult for the guardians. While the cost of one buffalo ranges between Rs 40, 000 and Rs 1,00, 000, the buffalo purchased from Punjab, costs around Rs 2-3 lakhs each. The Nili Ravi buffaloes produce 18-20 litres of milk per day, while the local breeds produce 7-10 litres of milk per day.  All the family members in a Gujjar family are usually involved in animal rearing and taking buffaloes out for grazing. With no or poor literacy level, Gujjar pastoralists have chosen to work this way since childhood, as they do not do any other work. Sometimes Gujjar milk producers sell their cows and buffaloes to pay to meet the rising demands for fodder. Therefore, Gujjars demand the revision of milk prices and get a fair price for their livestock milk. 

Bakerwals – the sheep and goat herdsmen

Bakarwal Gujjars and homeless Gujjars rear sheep and goats as their main source of livelihood. Bakarwals migrate to high summer pastures in the month of April during summers and return to lower winter pastures in Jammu province with the onset of winter. It takes one and a half months to reach the high pastures in Kashmir province and another one and a half months to return to low-lying pastures in Jammu province. Their stay at one seasonal pasture is around four months. Along with sheep and goats, they take horses to carry loads and Bhakarwal dogs as the guardian of the livestock. Each Bakarwal possesses around 50-150 goats and sheep. The winter season is usually the time of ceremonies, functions, rituals and marriages that sees a sharp rise in the demand for chevon and mutton. The Bakarwals sell their goat and sheep to the local traders. Along with this, they also vend the wool of their sheep at the local wool centres. Horses and mules are put on rent at construction sites and tourist spots by them to meet for the arrangement of extra feed for their cattle.

Livestock breeds

The cattle and buffalo breeds reared by the pastoralists in Jammu & Kashmir include Hariana and Sahiwal, non-descript Kashmiri cattle, Holstein Friesian and Nili Ravi buffaloes. Buffaloes migrate from Punjab and are seen more in the Jammu region. Jammu & Kashmir has a diversity of apparel and superior carpet-type wool breeds such as Gaddi, Rampur Bushair, Bakarwal, Poonchi, Karnah, Gurez and Kashmir Merino. The endangered Bakarwal sheep breeds are found in the higher ranges of Pir Panjal mountains, Kashmir valley and low-lying hills of Jammu and Kashmir. The Punchi Bakerwali sheep are extinct now. The goat breeds reared by Bakarwals are Bhakerwal goat, Kilan, Kaghani and Lubdi. These breeds are on the verge of extinction. Adult Bhakerwal goats grow well under low-input systems. Bakarwals value the extinct Yarkandi horses who survive extreme climates, thrive on coarse feed and fodder and travel with them during the seasonal migration to difficult topographies in the Upper Himalayas. Veterinary services are inaccessible to the migratory pastoralists due to tough topography at high reaches. Foot rot is a common ailment seen during seasonal migration. Herbs such as kuth, googal, raimand, ratanjot, kodpa trees, rattibuti, jogipadshah, jatlijadi, hand, hulla, Nera, chora are used to cure the animals. With the efforts of dairy cooperatives in Jammu & Kashmir, there are more than 500 milk cooperatives to provide market access to the dairy farmers of the valley. Thus the need for the sale of milk and wool from browsing goats and grazing sheep through off-farm and producer companies by the Bakarwal youth is necessary. 

Recommendations

Alternate routes of migration after weather prediction needs to be done by the government and concerned local authorities. Mobile animal husbandry and veterinary units should be established at the village level.

A need-based vocational training/skill development programme is necessary for the youth of this community.

Protection of livestock from sudden natural calamities through training in disaster management by the youth is necessary. 

There is a need to form producer companies for milk, milk products and wool just like FPOs for apples and promote alternative livelihoods through rent, tourism and handicrafts for the Gujjar, Bakarwal and Chopian pastoral communities in the wake of hostile climatic conditions.

Basic education to understand instructions on health and animals’ treatment and schemes relating to animal husbandry, various policies introduced by the respective state and central governments for their betterment and avail the same are necessary.

The youth of the pastoralist community must work along with the guidance of veterinary, agriculture and livestock officers for herd improvement.

Record keeping on the number of herds, cost and returns from investment on improved herding and grazing, and distance covered on seasonal movements needs documentation for covering insurance of the livestock after unruly disasters and man-wildlife conflicts.

Good market linkage for meat, milk, butter and wool by application of modern innovations is necessary. It is high time that the contribution of pastoralism to the national economy as the custodians of livestock in unpredictable climatic zones is recognized.

Ethnographic studies of pastoralism must be carried out to get valuable insights into the national forest policies and local adaptation strategies.

Concepts of transhumance and pastoralism must be incorporated into the curriculum of veterinary science and animal husbandry in India. Therefore, it is important to conserve indigenous livestock breeds, traditional knowledge, and ethno-veterinary practices (EVP) of the rarest and dwindling pastoralist ethnic tribal community of Jammu & Kashmir.

References

https://www.greaterkashmir.com/business/boosting-dairy-industry-jk-poised-to-achieve-remarkable-growth-in-milk-productivity-govt

Interview from Dr. Javed Rahi’s Youtube link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE7_b8r8PIs&t=5s&ab_channel=JavaidRahi

https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/IJAnS/article/view/124009