Categories Asia, Blog, Events, India

Sariska Pastoralists gather to create a Federation

First published on 12/29/2015, and last updated on 03/29/2018

By: Aman Singh, KRAPAVIS and Honorary member of ICCA Consortium

During the 13-15 December 2015 was organized in Alwar, Rajasthan (India), a three-day pastoralists’ workshop on Oran (that are ICCAs in this region) conservation and on the opportunity of creating a federation of Orans. The workshop was conducted by KRAPAVIS (Krishi Avam Paristhitiki Vikas Sansthan) under a project called “Strengthening ‘Oran’ the Community Conserved System”. Dr. Neema Pathak, belonging to the ICCA Consortium Coordinator for South Asia & Kalpavriksh, and Aman Singh Honorary Member of ICCA Consortium & Founder of KRAPAVIS, Dr. Dubey and Pratibha Sisodia led the workshop.

More than 50 pastoralists from various villages of Sariska ‘Tapobhumi’, a specific cultural landscape, gathered to pursue a shared goal. Their area encompasses 300-villages/ hamlets, which are home to about 150,000 people and 140,000 animals as livestock. Sariska ‘Tapobhumi’ is protected as a Tiger Reserve, which is composed of Orans, Dev Banis (i.e. sacred groves) that together form a substantial forest tract of more than 1000 square km. The Sariska Tiger Reserve is located in the Aravalli hills, in Alwar, the oldest mountain range in the world.

During the workshop, pastoralists leaders, such as Radhey Gujjar, Ramjivan Gujjar, and Fulya Gujjar shared their experiences and views on the importance of the Dev banis as reserves for fodder, dry firewood, fruits and other products essential to their livelihoods. They also emphasized the importance of the age-old rules called khadu and dara, which govern the Dev bani and are internalised by community members. These include prohibitions to carry an axe, or to remove green wood and wood or fodder for sale. Such rules assure that there will be resources in times of extreme scarcity. Gujjar’s pastoralist community also explained that they prefer to live in wilderness with their livestock (buffalos, goats and cows). 95.7 % of their livelihood income comes from animal husbandry practices.

Women pastoralists like Kaishi Devi, Moneeka Devi and others, also shared their experiences and the important role they play in landscape conservation. They emphasized that the Dev Bani institution is held together by the force of tradition and they consider it to be a natural emblem of their life, through which moral and social ideals can be transmitted from one generation to another. Women also explained their routine work: in the early morning the livestock are milked and the milk from the previous evening is turned into ghee (traditionally processed butter) and mawa (milk cake). Along the day they collect non-timber forest products and water, clean their households, prepare food and make and trade dung cakes, a valuable source of fuel for themselves, as well as for sale to people in cities where fuel is scarce.

In brief, the three day meeting highlighted the following key issues:

Now that this Tapobhumi landscape is declared Sariska Tiger Reserve, indigenous grazing lands are now out of bounds for pastoralists. This is despite the existence of the forest rights related laws, especially Forest Rights Act (FRA), Biodiversity Act, Rajasthan Forest Policy, Panchayat Act, and so on.

Pastoralists’ rights are not fully recognised by the government and their sustainable pastoralism pratices are not appreciated by forestry engineers and policy makers. Pastoralists, who have been traditionally interacting with this landscape, are being constantly harassed by the Forest Department field staff, and relocation procedures mentioned in the FRA (Forest Forest Act) have been flouted by the Government. The people in Sariska Tiger Reserve have been denied their rights at every step, in the name of tiger conservation. Basic amenities like schools, roads, electricity supplies and hospitals should be provided. Other threats are contracting disease and infection while migrating to lowland plains, growing dependency on modern/commercial remedies and medicine, increasing level of intoxication by chemical farming in the plain lands and loss of indigenous knowledge.

Pastoralists listed some important plants species which, according to them, are endangered or critically endangered in this particular landscape. Pastoralists demanded the inclusion in the conservation list of the following species: Jungle Bundi (Cordia Gharaf),  Kalakuda, Amaltas (Cassia fistula), Akol (Alangium salviifolium), Kateera / Karaya (Sterculia urens), Guggal (Commiphora wightii), Cheela (Butea monosperma), Kalam (Mitragyna parvifolia), Khejri / Sigrela (Prosopis cineraria), Kalihari / Ladokli (Gloriosa superb), Dansar (Rhus mysorensis) etc. The lack of rain affects natural regeneration.

Some other elements of change are threats to the pastoralists’ sustainable way of life, such as an inappropriate education that is alienating children by deprecating the pastoralist way of life, or the lack of pastoralism as a topic in the agenda of the political leadership.

In order to address the issues mentioned above, the pastoralists discussed strategies they might take toward collective action and the creation of a federation. The idea of forming a federation should be started at the village level and then to block, district, state and national level, on up to the international level. Pastoralists felt that organizations like KRAPAVIS, Paul K. Feyerabend Foundation, ICCA Consortium and others would be useful in providing a key advisory role in the creation of a federation, and in nurturing, strengthening and facilitating community interaction with each other. Together, they are building their capacity to negotiate with the government and fight for conserving their livelihoods and the landscape in which they live.

For more information, please contact Krapavis at: krapavis_oran@rediffmail.com