Gobar Times Magazine (Environment for Kids Monthly) - Centre for Science and Environment

Gobar times: Environment for Beginners

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Fighting all the way
In a complete turnaround from the age-old conventions, farmers now beg authorities to restrict the entry of nomads from neighbouring states. Nomads from Gujarat and Rajasthan, for instance, regularly migrate to the forests of Madhya Pradesh. But the local people here are constantly complaining-the sheep destroy their standing crops, they say. So even though the government has specified the migration route, villagers and nomads are at loggerheads.

The government, too, want to keep these communities at arms' length. Conflicts between the Van Gujjars and forest department officers in Uttrachanchal have been on for decades. The Van Gujjars live in these hilly terrains and they have been using the area around Rajaji National Park as their home during the winters for generations. They depend on forest resources to feed their buffaloes. So, their existence is directly linked to forest lands, and they, in turn, protected the resources with their lives. But now the Van Gujjars are labelled as trespassers, and the forest authorities see them as the main threats to the regional ecosystem!

There are more such tales of decline. The Vaidus (the moving medics of Maharashtra), have moved to cities like Mumbai, Pune and Kohlapur in hordes, to work as wage labourers, because they have lost their profession. With the spread of allopathic medicine, the demand for Vaidu potions has dropped dramatically. In fact, these traditional healers are dismissed as quacks by modern doctors.

Journey to nowhere

So now you know why those tents-the eyesores in your park-have been put up there. They probably belong to banjaras, who once made a living out of herding donkeys. But now they come to work in construction sites in cities, where they rent animals and their own labour to haul building materials.

Experts around the world are convinced that nomads make best use of fragile, arid lands. But the growing crop fields, burgeoning cities, and expanding industrial zones are fast gobbling up lands that were once the life line of these tribes.
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The trend is similar everywhere. Even in the US, where official systems exist to allow graziers access to government-owned rangelands, they are fighting a losing battle against the urban onslaught. The situation is far worse in developing countries like India. Here rate of population growth is phenomenal, and with it the pressure to increase food production, to provide shelter to millions-keeps mounting. Result: the governments simply ignore the needs of the fringe communities. Like the nomads.

While the future of the pastorals hangs on a thread the non-pastoral nomads who were traders, medical practitioners and entertainers have lost out completely. In 1952, these tribes were 'denotified.' But they were reclassified as habitual offenders in 1959.Even today, laws require them to register at police stations in the districts they pass through.

So these skilled professionals are now reduced to being grossly underpaid farm hands or construction labourers. Don't they deserve a better, a more promising future? Can you think of a strategy to help them find it?

THINK ABOUT IT AND LET US KNOW.

The most scary fact is that the government has no real policy for helping them adjust to the changing environment. The agencies have barely any understanding of the arts that they excel in or the lifestyle that they are used to. Their general attitude is to 'settle' them. They are sometimes 'rehabilitated' in severely degraded lands, where any permanent form of agriculture is practically impossible!

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