Sustainable development for pastoralist women in India; Collaboration between the University of Leeds and Centre for Pastoralism

Caroline Dyer is the principal investigator. Co-researchers include Emma Tomlin, Archana Choksi and Sushma Iyengar. Nitya Ghotge is CfP’s facilitator for the project. Other researchers include Krutika Haraniya, Gurpreet Kaur, Kaushalika Dharmadhikari and Varsha Ganguly.

The HERDING project is funded by the British Academy’s Sustainable Development Research Programme. The project focuses on women in mobile pastoralist communities. Rapidly changing patterns of land use alongside pressures to become sedentary are challenging pastoralists’ livelihoods as herders. Many pastoralists are becoming more vulnerable to poverty and changes are affecting the men and women of these communities in different ways. The HERDING project draws on multiple disciplines including gender studies, development studies and the sociological study of religion to gauge the complex transformations of pastoralist women’s lives. It investigates the role that their beliefs and practices play in constructing a sense of shared heritage that links them to the land and their animals and how this heritage is changing. It provides an opportunity for pastoralist women, whose voices are often drowned by the voices of men, to speak about their roles and the importance to them of religion, gender, culture and nature.

The project works with four communities of Hindu and Muslim pastoralists in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. Academics from the University of Leeds and the Centre for Pastoralism are working in partnership with NGOs that have developed a long-standing body of work on pastoralism and on the promotion of women’s wellbeing and empowerment. These organizations are Anthra in Pune, Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan and Setu Abhiyan in Kachchh, and the Himachal Van Adhikar Manch in Kangra.

The HERDING project aims to advance a view of sustainable development that honours pastoralists’ heritage, stalls processes of exclusion and supports plans on India’s sustainable development goals.

In Uttarakhand in general and in the Kumaon region in particular, transhumant herders now face restrictions from government and local communities along their traditional routes where long-standing commons arrangements are being undone. This has translated into progressively poor commons governance with a resultant overstocking of alpine meadows, extensive burning of juniper stands (for fuelwood and to eliminate ambush cover), and retaliatory killing of predators such as snow leopards.

The government’s crossbreeding strategies have compounded these problems. Sheep crossbred with exotics such as Merino and Rambouillet have suffered great mortality in the frequent episodes of epidemic disease such as PPR and FMD.

Perhaps most critically, shepherd-snow leopard conflicts have grown progressively worse. Crossbred sheep are easy prey since predator-wariness has been bred out of them and the breed quality of sheep dogs has been diluted. Both factors have led to higher mortality amongst shepherd flocks, leading to increasing incidents of shepherds resorting to poisoning carcasses and thereby to snow leopard deaths.

In Uttarakhand in general and in Kumaon in particular, transhumant herders now face restrictions from government as well as from communities along their traditional routes where long-standing commons arrangements are being undone. This has translated into progressively poor commons governance with a resultant overstocking of alpine meadows, extensive burning of juniper stands (for fuelwood and to eliminate ambush cover), and retaliatory killing of predators such as snow leopards.

The government’s crossbreeding strategies have compounded these problems. Sheep crossbred with exotics such as Merino and Ramboullette have suffered great mortality in the frequent episodes of epidemic disease such as PPR and FMD. Besides, with the influx of cheap Chinese acrylic, the local demand for wool - a key reason for crossbreeding - has nosedived in Uttarakhand. Exotic sheep are also smaller and less valuable when sold for meat.

Perhaps most critically, shepherd-snow leopard conflicts have grown progressively worse. Crossbred sheep are easy prey since predator-wariness has been bred out of them and the breed quality of sheep dogs has been diluted. Both factors have led to higher mortality amongst shepherd flocks, leading to increasing incidents of shepherds resorting to poisoning carcasses and thereby to snow leopard deaths.

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 the following:

We have struggled to answer two questions that are routinely asked of us: just how many people are we talking about? And, associated with this, just how many animals are we talking about? While there are some localised estimates on both counts, there is a surprising absence of basic information on pastoralism in the country. There is even less data on demographic and other trends in pastoralist societies – is a younger generation of herders still herding? Is absentee-herding a growing phenomenon? Are educational levels influencing career choices within pastoral communities? In collaboration with the Indian School of Business, CfP undertook a yearlong national survey on the state of Indian pastoralism. The survey was less productive than hoped for but forms the basis for a three-year collaborative study that is awaiting funding approvals.

This was a collaboration between the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad and Centre for Pastoralism. Projects were supervised by Gauri Bharat (CEPT University) and Sushma Iyengar (Centre for Pastoralism)

Very little is known about the architecture of nomadic pastoralist communities across South Asia. While this is partly due to the inherently minimal material culture of these communities, it is also because of the transient nature of their dwellings. While on the move, communities set up tents or other temporary dwellings of various kinds, minimal shelter against the sun and rain for themselves, the food stores they carry and for newly born kids or lambs. These “habitations” are in varying degrees of flux, and best understood as ‘process’ rather than static ‘place’ or ‘architectural form’. Through a series of research projects, CEPT students have documented and analysed several nomadic pastoralist dwellings as a process of dwelling on the move. They examined the homes as outcomes of animal and human needs, but also looked at how these are shaped by the pushes and pulls of modern society, changing landscapes, and the environment.

Students documented the habitations of the Dhangar and Dangi herders in Maharashtra, the Changpa herders in Leh, the Brokpa in Arunachal Pradesh, and Vagadia Rabaris in Kachchh. They focused on the process of setting up dwellings, practices of daily life, the process of packing and unpacking at each site, and where possible, the wider routes and networks of the communities. The emphasis on relationships and negotiations revealed that nomadic pastoralist dwellings, though extremely minimal, are not merely a process of finding physical shelter from the elements nor are they facets of a primordial way of life in complete harmony with nature.

The communities constantly engage with the structures of modern life and the transformations are evident: from previously storing water in skin bottles to now using plastic water bottles, a transition from fabric tents of the past to tarpaulin tents used today, to more significant changes such as trading pack animals for small trucks as primary transport, or collectively grazing animals and gradually shifting to semi settled lives. These projects offer detailed insights into pastoralist homes and lives and also touch on the contemporary challenges faced by these communities.

Participating students included: Aesha Gandhi (Brokpa, Arunachal Pradesh), Akash Ghadiyali (Changpa, Ladakh), Mustafa Chharchoda (Changpa, Ladakh), Nidhi Pipariya (Dangar and Dangi, Maharashtra), Priyanka Kumari Rohit (Brokpa, Arunachal Pradesh) and Sagar Vadher (Rabari, Kachchh, Gujarat).

Sustainable development for pastoralist women in India; Collaboration between the University of Leeds and Centre for Pastoralism

Caroline Dyer is the principal investigator. Co-researchers include Emma Tomlin, Archana Choksi and Sushma Iyengar. Nitya Ghotge is CfP’s facilitator for the project. Other researchers include Krutika Haraniya, Gurpreet Kaur, Kaushalika Dharmadhikari and Varsha Ganguly.

The HERDING project is funded by the British Academy’s Sustainable Development Research Programme. The project focuses on women in mobile pastoralist communities. Rapidly changing patterns of land use alongside pressures to become sedentary are challenging pastoralists’ livelihoods as herders. Many pastoralists are becoming more vulnerable to poverty and changes are affecting the men and women of these communities in different ways. The HERDING project draws on multiple disciplines including gender studies, development studies and the sociological study of religion to gauge the complex transformations of pastoralist women’s lives. It investigates the role that their beliefs and practices play in constructing a sense of shared heritage that links them to the land and their animals and how this heritage is changing. It provides an opportunity for pastoralist women, whose voices are often drowned by the voices of men, to speak about their roles and the importance to them of religion, gender, culture and nature.

The project works with four communities of Hindu and Muslim pastoralists in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. Academics from the University of Leeds and the Centre for Pastoralism are working in partnership with NGOs that have developed a long-standing body of work on pastoralism and on the promotion of women’s wellbeing and empowerment. These organizations are Anthra in Pune, Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan and Setu Abhiyan in Kachchh, and the Himachal Van Adhikar Manch in Kangra.

The HERDING project aims to advance a view of sustainable development that honours pastoralists’ heritage, stalls processes of exclusion and supports plans on India’s sustainable development goals.

There are long-standing traditions in many parts of India of farming communities inviting shepherds to pen their animals on fallow lands. Farmers would often pay for the service and/or provide food. In return, farmer fields would receive high quality manure. In many parts of the country, this practice is changing, particularly in light of the easy availability of subsidized chemical fertilizers. Somewhat surprisingly, farmers in the Deccan plateau continue to invite shepherds to manure their fields.

This study will use a historical perspective to examine how penning practices have changed in the region over time. It will do this by trying to understand 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 has evolved over the past 2 to 3 decades and the triggers responsible for change. WASSAN and CPC will conduct the study in the states of Telangana and Maharashtra respectively with Ashwini Kulkarni of Pragati Abhiyan as the lead coordinator.

A month into the COVID-19 lockdown, a brief survey of pastoral communities underlined the most salient ways in which these communities were being affected by COVID. Several researchers within and outside CfP are now using these findings to conduct a national survey aimed at fine-tuning our understanding of how pastoralists have fared during the COVID lockdown and in its aftermath. The survey is based on a sampling of approximately 20 households for each pastoralist community in the country. A report on the survey should be available by the end of the year.

Based on a generalized sense that herder revenues from sale of wool have been in historical decline, CfP commissioned a national survey on the state of the wool economy, with specific reference to indigenously produced wool. This study has been in two phases.

The first phase of the study confirms a broad decline in herder incomes from wool alongside the losses that the herders incur due to the increasing costs of shearing. While the wool economy has grown significantly, the growth has come due to imported wools while indigenous wools have been largely phased out of the Indian market. Macro-level factors like decreasing pastures and low-quality feed have resulted in poor quality sheep fibre, and consequently, low demand for indigenous wool. Interestingly, manufacturers of the carpet and felting industries of Rajasthan asserted that Indian wool, particularly that of the Magra and Chokhla breeds, is well suited to the production of carpets and home textiles as well as in applications for insulation. Findings from the first phase have been shared with concerned stakeholders and there have been a series of discussions on taking this work forward. The report of the first phase of the study is available here. The first phase of the assessment was carried out in Rajasthan, Gujarat, the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, and Telangana.

The second phase of the assessment was completed in March 2020 and a final assessment report is being worked on. The second phase was carried out in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, and Karnataka. Preliminary findings of the second phase of the study add strength to the broad findings of the first phase and point towards a wide scale decimation of the local wool economy.

It is worth noting that phase 2 of the study documented the existence of local wool economies in some pockets, characterised by a decent number of consumers of local wool, artisans and decentralised infrastructure that supports the wool economy. CfP will look to identify avenues/ partnerships to build on the strengths of these pockets and develop larger indigenous wool economies.

This publication represents the first ever compilation of the pastoral breeds of India, those animal populations that have been bred and managed by nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralist communities. Pastoralism has carefully crafted animal breeds with unique characteristics in sync with the ecology of their region. The report identifies 73 such populations - including goats, sheep, cows, buffaloes, camels, horses, donkeys, pigs and yak. The fact that these 73 breeds represent close to 40% of the 197 recognized breeds in the country today points to the remarkable contribution that pastoral communities have made in building and maintaining India’s domesticated genetic diversity, a contribution that is rarely recognized. This report provides details on these 73 pastoral breeds, including photographs where available, an assessment of the population’s status - whether or not it is endangered; details on its native tract and the ecosystem it grazes in; phenotypic and molecular characteristics, production and reproduction parameters; details on the communities that rear and manage the breed; and existing government or other plans to maintain the breed. While the report serves to document these breeds and calls for attention to the pastoral systems that have bred them, it also serves as a field guide for those interested in our domesticated animal genetic diversity.

RAMBLE CfP has joined the consortium of partners that host RAMBLE – Research And Monitoring of the Banni Landscape. RAMBLE is an open research platform with the chief mandate of facilitating disciplinary and interdisciplinary research on various aspects of the Banni grassland, its pastoral communities and their interactions with the ecosystem. Implicit in our approach is the understanding that ecological and social systems are intimately coupled, and neither can be fully understood independently of the other.

The Indian Pastoral Network emerged from the 2019 Living Lightly Conference hosted by a consortium of organizations in Pune. Its broad mandate is to support academic research on pastoralism in India by teaching methodological and theory courses relevant to pastoralism, hosting academic meetings on specific thematics, and hosting an annual Living Lightly Conference. The IPN has been successful in raising funding for a four- year period, starting 2019. Membership to the IPN is open to all.