Issue 302

22 14/06/2019 NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
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“It is the first time in our lifetime
that we have come to Gujarat, walking
280 kms from our village with our
livestock”, says Virambhai from
Khengarpur village in the Lakhpat
Tehsil of Kutch district in Gujarat. He
has migrated to Maliya block in
Morbi District of the state of Gujarat.
(For pastoralists of Kutch, their
native place is Kutch, and down
Kutch begins Gujarat.
We went to meet a group of pastoralists,
as its their way of live, this
group engages in mobility of herds,
people, and their habitat. The need to
understand their lived experiences as
pastoralists, and the challenges that
their changing context poses on them
inspired my meeting with them.
We travelled to Maliya, going 5
kms into the major highway, to a
place where he had put-up with his
family and livestock for one week. It
was the fourth day for them on that
field, they planned to stay for another
six days, before they will move again.
There is no pacca (tarred) road to
make easy our movement in the field.
The field had no vegetation at the
moment, it was the picture of a land
that had recently given up its yields; a
perfect site to camp! Recovering from
a season of harvest, the farm lands lay
plain and seedless, waiting to be
prepped for a new season. As we
approach further into the field, we
could see three khats (Cots) positioned
in the field forming a triangle.
These Khats carry the possessions of
three families who are migrating
together with their livestock.
With the scorching sun glaring
down at us, we encountered some
pastoralist men and women awaiting
our arrival. A few others joined us
later. We asked them about their
route, and they shared that they are all
migrating albeit differently. At the
moment, they planned on settling in
5-7 nearby villages in search of pasture;
the nearby villages are located
within a radius of 4-5 kms from
where we met them. I learned that
they had deputed their family members
to graze their livestock to enable
them to meet with us at noon; afternoon
is a good time for them as they
are mostly busy with their livestock
in the evening, after grazing. Beside
the spot where we gathered, a big
long net with a few ropes lay scattered
in between the triangle shaped
khats. No big livestock are seen, only
young goats and sheep. They shared
with us that their older livestock are
out for grazing, thus only the young
ones are left behind, that are cared for
by the women. There are clearly
defined gender roles in place here,
men take the livestock for grazing,
and women cook the meals for the
family and perform other domestic
duties such as doing laundry at nearby
water source, fetching water, vegetables
and other stuff from the nearby
villages. Also, women perform
significant role of taking care of the
children; ailing and young livestock.
It was evening, and we witnessed
the arrival of the livestock that had
been out for grazing. The first ones to
arrive were the three camels, they are
welcomed with moaning and sobs
from their young ones expecting their
mothers. In a short time, the sheep
and goats followed the camels. Being
on a huge plain field, they were visible
from afar off. Upon the safe
arrival of all the livestock, we learnt
Pastoralism: a minimalist
and environmentally
friendly way of living
the usefulness of the
big long net and ropes
we had seen earlier;
they are for safety, the
women and men had
tied the net on four
distant sides to surround
the young ones.
The yearning from
the mothers and their
young as they seek
out one another is
very emotive. The
knowledge, affection
and closeness of pastoral
families is visible
when they grab
each offspring and
take it to its mother.
This scenario cannot
be captured in words,
it is indeed so moving
to witness the joy of
the reunion, the mothers
and their young
are so happy to get
together as the mothers
feed their offspring,
licking them
affectionately.
Nothing explains
pastoralism better – a
community without address, co-existing
with livestock and nature, no
greed of possession/ownership of
land or any other natural resources.
Pastoral community – the community
knows no boundaries, they travel
across villages, blocks, districts,
states and even nations. They present
classic model for practicing boundary-less
globe. They co-exist with
nature, forest habitat including wild
animals, with the forest dwellers, city
dwellers, village dwellers, etc.
The pastorals form a population of
around 8-10% in Gujarat, they are
mostly located in Kutch, North
Gujarat and Saurashtra regions and
move from these dry, arid and semiarid
regions to most green lands within
Gujarat and outside Gujarat
towards Chhattisgarh, Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra.
These pastoralists manage the
lands and grasses that is otherwise
considered wasteland and convert
high energy food out of THIS
WASTELAND. For pastoralists, no
land is a wasteland, they produce
food and other products using the
lands, which otherwise will not be put
to any productive use. The huge
rangelands becomes rejuvenated
lands with the manure that is produced
while pastoralists move across
them, they nourish the land, making
the fields fertile for the next planting
season. The grazing animals convert
vegetation that cannot be eaten directly
by humans into high-value foods:
milk, meat and various dairy products.
Jaisan Kaka, from Kutch best
narrates the value they give when he
asked: ‘have you seen any machine
where you put grasses and it gives
you milk?’. Pastoralists
grazing non-arable
rangelands do not compete
with humans for
food (ILRI, 2019).
Pastoralists’ livestock
are seldom or never fed
with grains that could
be used as food for
humans.
One thing that was
moved me and compelled
me to reflect on
our capitalist and consumerist
way of living,
is the optimum
resources they require
for their living. All the
mobile families that I
met (which include on
an average 5-6 members
– husband, wife
and children), are on
the move, with their
possessions hurdled to
the back of one camel.
I am made to understand
that the possession
carried by this
camel is enough to
last them for eight
months and equips
them to manage through all three seasons
– summer, monsoon and winter.
Some of the pictures we took are self
revealing. As seen, the household
items, generally include 2 khats, one
tawa, 2-3 utensils to cook food, 6-7
rakabi (saucer plates), 2-3 dishes to
eat, some spices in paper/bag, some
cans for fetching and storing water,
nets for safety of the livestock and a
few clothes.
The pastoralist way of living is a
lot different from the mainstream
society that stand on the history of
settled agricultural habitants. Like
tribals, the pastoralists choose a separate
route of life cycle that clearly
does not resemble that of the mainstream
society.
Jehabhai, one of the pastoralist
amongst the group says ‘we are
entirely dependent on our livestock
and likewise, they are dependent on
us.’ He added, ‘Aa kadyug na zamana
ma, potana chokrao pan samne nathi
joyta, zyare gheta bakra ne nam the
bolaviye chiye tyare dodi ne avi jaye
che.’ (In this time of kalyug, it is possible
that our own child doesn’t turn
up when we call, but the goat will certainly
come. (As per Hinduism,
Kalyug is the last of four stages that
the world goes through. It is the darkest
times, when goodness and virtue
has all but disappeared from the
world.) This is the kind of bond
between pastoralists and their livestock.
Even the agro-pastoralists, who
have settled into agriculture, give
more importance to the livestock over
the crops, unlike the crop cultivating
farmer, for whom the crop is the priority.
The pastoralists shared that they
have 13 rangelands in Kutch, which
was open for them from ‘the
Kingdom era’. With minimum revenue,
they were allowed to graze the
livestock for the entire year in the
Rangeland. Rather than controlling or
exploiting the land, they instead use
and manage the land collectively and
unanimously. But over the years,
these lands are being acquired or
encroached, The rangelands in
Gujarat are either acquired by the
solar parks, national highways,
national parks, industries, etc. These
are the lands, which are categorized
as ‘wasteland’ in the government
records but pastoral’s livelihoods is
dependent on them. The livestock
graze on these lands and they encompass
the migratory corridors for pastorals.
Thus, losing out the rangelands
has pushed pastorals on margins and
left them vulnerable.
Speaking with the group of women
who joined us at the meeting is
empowering, they are fearless! While
men go for grazing and searching for
the next destination, the women are
the ones negotiating with the nearby
villagers for water, fuel, other daily
requirements, selling the milk and
other dairy products. They have full
control over the finances and access
to market. Pastoralism is a holistic
livelihood for the entire family, primarily
through selling animals and
milk products.
Before dusk creeped in, the pastoralists
from nearby villages waved
goodbye to me. In spending time with
them, we have enjoyed the privilege
of witnessing the arrival of the livestock
and the rare sight of the relationship
of pastoralists with their livestock.
Now it is the time for us to
depart.
We returned with a feeling of contentment,
hope and reassurance that
there is an entire community that has
taken the task of conserving the environment,
and are producing food for
the society with an impressively minimalistic
approach. I am beginning to
see them as the path breakers and
direction givers to the humanity, that
if environment and nature friendly
lifestyle is not adopted, we will not be
able to save the world from natural
disasters and catastrophes.
Anu Verma, the author is an
activist working on social
change, with a special focus on
pastorals, land and on gender
issues. She is associated with
South Asia Pastoral Alliance as
the focal person. The views
expressed here are personal.