The HERDING project focuses on women in mobile pastoralist communities. It is an interdisciplinary project that aims  to gauge the complex transformations of pastoralist women’s lives. The rapidly changing patterns of land use and pressures of sedentarisation are affecting pastoral livelihoods and making them vulnerable to poverty, but disproportionately affecting women. This project examines the impact on women and aims to advance a view of sustainable development that honours pastoral heritage, stalls processes of exclusion and supports India’s sustainable development goals.

In Uttarakhand and in the Kumaon region, in particular, transhumant herders now face restrictions from government and local communities along their traditional routes. This has translated into progressively poor commons governance, with implications for predator-prey population dynamics in the alpine meadows.

Over the next five years, we hope to undertake a combination of research and community interventions to reverse some of the trends outlined above. The strategy will involve building a common understanding (baseline data and analysis) of emerging problems and possible interventions; reviving traditional commons governance; assisting shepherds in breeding traditional indigenous breeds; establishing predation compensation funds; strengthening advocacy for and rights to traditional grazing grounds and compensation funds and policies from the government.

Based on a generalized sense that herder revenues from the sale of wool have been in historical decline, we commissioned a national survey on the state of the wool economy, with specific reference to indigenously produced wool. This study was conducted in two phases. The first focused on Rajasthan, Gujarat, the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand and Telangana. The second phase looked at Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, and Karnataka.The broad findings of this survey point towards a wide-scale decline of the local wool economy. 

Our atlas on Indian pastoralism is aimed at creating a visual representation of pastoral communities spread across India. We are focusing on capturing temporal, spatial, ecological, and cultural aspects relating to pastoralist use of multiple landscapes. This atlas will be a useful resource for others like policymakers, researchers and civil society organisations. We are currently implementing the pilot phase of our atlas project in Himachal Pradesh and testing methodologies, which we plan to replicate across India.

This study uses a historical perspective to examine how penning practices have changed in the region over time. It focuses on understanding interpersonal relations between farmers and pastoralists, socio-cultural dimensions associated with the practice, indigenous rituals and traditions, economies surrounding livestock penning in the region, how each of these have evolved over time and the triggers responsible for the change.