In search of greener pastures: Shepherds drive livestock downhill

A study analyses their movement and living patterns in K-P, Punjab.

MANSEHRA:

As winter approaches, shepherds in Hazara Division have started travelling down country along with their livestock from Kaghan valley.

Locals say that the valley received its first snowfall a few weeks back, dropping the mercury by several notches. In search of greener pastures for their livestock, the shepherds are travelling to various parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Punjab, where they subsist by selling milk, oil and surplus livestock and working as daily labourers in these areas.

“We are moving towards Garhi Habibullah in Mansehra District and will gradually go further south as the weather gets harsher,” said Ghafoor, a shepherd, who was tending to his mule.

According to a study on “Agro-pastoral production systems of high altitude pastures, Upper Kaghan Valley,” conducted by Peshawar Forest Institute Range Management Officer Dr Rafiq Sardar, the valley hosts two types of shepherds: nomadic ones and sedentary. The sedentary shepherds own or rent land, making a living by cultivating crop and herding their livestock to higher altitudes during the summer, only to return to the foothills or semi-cold areas during winter. Relatively better off, their per household on-farm annual income is Rs21,600 and off-farm income is Rs12,230 per annum.

On the other hand, a nomadic shepherd family earns only Rs23,856 annually and are rated as poor in the study. They live in tents, do not own land and depend on livestock keeping. They move to the low-lying areas of K-P and Punjab in search of fodder for the livestock; often, most of the access routes get covered in snow.

The movement of both groups coincides with sowing and harvesting of the crops. Sedentary shepherds start moving after sowing summer crops in the valley and return during harvesting. They start moving upwards from the second week of May to the third week of June and start the downward journey in the third week of September; returning during the first week of October — the time for harvesting crop.

Similarly, nomadic shepherds start the uphill journey during the first week of May to the last week of June at a time when wheat crop is harvested in the areas around their winter grazing land.

The study states that sedentary shepherds herd their livestock along main valley road. They stop over at seven places each night and feed their livestock. Meanwhile, the nomadic shepherds use three routes; a large number of them move along mountain tops on the left and the right sides of the Kunhar River.

A few of them also use the main valley road. They make 23 stops on either side and 13 stops on the main road. At each stop, they stay for one or two nights each and feed their livestock. Every day, they cover about 15-24 kilometres before camping at night.

About the grazing pattern, the study says that at final camping sites, both types of the shepherds herd and graze their livestock daily for nine to 11 hours. Water is provided daily and salt once in nine to 10 days.

Sedentary shepherds graze their livestock in Kaghan, Balakot and Shohal in fall and winters. Meanwhile, the second category herds livestock, particularly buffaloes, to Haripur for winter feeding them on cultivated crops.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2012.