A library of resources on pastoralism

Webpage | 2023

Maldhari Women Changemakers of Banni Grasslands in Kachchh

Author: Astha Chaudhary and Dipti Arora

The women of the Maldhari community have a huge role to play in the rearing of livestock. They are also very artistic and their embroideries are works of art. On International Women’s Day, read...

Blog Post | 2023

Uncertain Worlds #1 – Lessons from pastoralists

What are you uncertain about? If you can’t control or predict the future, how can you prepare for it? Uncertainty can be scary, but can it also be a source of hope or opportunity? Over the next few…

Blog Post | 2023

Uncertain Worlds #2 – Economics, banking and finance

The second comic in our ‘Uncertain Worlds’ series explores the lessons from the financial crash of 2007-8. In the run-up to the crash, the financial sector had become too reliant on complex algorit…

Journal Article | 2023

Pastoralism in Transition

Volume: 42
Pages: 146-152

Authors: Aniruddh Sheth, Vasant Saberwal

In this essay we focus on what appears to be an evolving transition among Gaddi and other pastoralist communities in Himachal Pradesh, India. Contrary to predictions of the demise of pastoralism, we argue that while there is evidence of sedentarisation among Himachali pastoralists, there is also an emerging trend of households managing smaller herds over a more limited part of the pastoral landscape. We use material from research conducted three decades ago, in combination with ongoing research studying the pastoral economy to understand the drivers of this transition. The essay explores shifts in labour dynamics, where increasingly pastoralist labour prefer cash payments and temporary work opportunities, indicating a reduced commitment to herding. There is an increasing trend of hiring labour from non-traditional herder households, such as Bihari and Nepalese workers, to manage pastoralist herds. Moreover, transitions to smaller herds enables easier management during the winter months when forage availability is limited. Himachali pastoralism remains profitable, but contemporary logics of herd composition, pastoral routes, and market dynamics no longer align with previous models. The essay concludes by pointing to emerging areas of research that might help in better understanding the nature of the ongoing transition in Himachali pastoralism, suggesting that sedentarisation may not be the appropriate term to describe the current trends and that these transitions and their implications must be further assessed before prescribing the eventual demise of pastoralism.

Journal Article

Pastoral Politics: Gaddi Grazing, Degradation, and Biodiversity Conservation in Himachal Pradesh, India

Volume: 10
Pages: 741-749

Author: Vasant K. Saberwal

Two assumptions underlie the current conservation focus worldwide. The first is that democratic governments can restrict human resource use within protected areas, and the second is that human land use for subsistence leads to degradation and is incompatible wvith the maintenance of high levels of biological diversity. An examination of officialpolicy documents over the past century indicates that Gaddi herders of Himachal Pradesh, northwestern Indian Himalaya, have used political influence to circumvent bureaucratic policies of exclusion and that there is an absence of scientific evidence to support the notion that Gaddi grazing leads to land degradation. Although grazing intensity has profoundly shaped the strtucture and comp)osition of the Siwalik forests (the Gaddi winter grazing grounds), as demonstrated by transect-based data presented here, deviations from a supposed "climax" community need not constitute degradation. A growving rather than declining cattle population attests to the regenerative capacities of these forests. Withini the alpine meadows grazed by the Gaddi in summer, mean plant species richness increased along transects originating at herder camps and extending 250 in north of herder cam]p sites. Intense grazing pressure or heavy manuring by livestock bedded at night are likeljy to be responsible for the observed low species diversity adjacent to the campsite, but the effect is insignificanit at the level of the overall landscape. Interviews with herders also suggest the presence of a sizable, though hunted, mammalian fauna in these high altitude meadows. Recognition of the difficulties associated with implementing restrictive policies, and the fact that buman land-use practices need not lead to degradation or to a decline in biological diversity, should lead to more inclusive conservation policies within protected areas as well as an expansion of the conservation focus beyond protected-area boundaries.

Journal Article | 2004

Whither South Asian Pastoralism? An Introduction

Volume: 8
Pages: 36-53

Authors: Arun Agrawal, Vasant K. Saberwal

Journal Article | 2020

A Relational View of Pastoral (im)mobilities

Volume: 24
Pages: 209-227

Author: Natasha Maru

Pitched against the apparently more civilised and modern ‘settled’, pastoralists have historically been penalised for the seemingly primitive and outdated practice of mobility. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in western India, this paper challenges this reductive dichotomy and unpacks the many (im)mobilities produced, accessed, experienced and imagined by pastoralists. Adopting a relational lens, it shows how mobilities and immobilities co-constitute and are contingent on each other across social, geographical and temporal scales. Embedded within their own social and political history, the many forms that mobility can take dispel, ontologically, the homogenising effects of rigid typologies, but it also practically offers the capacity to adapt to changing times.