Winter nears, shepherds start moving to lower hills

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, October 24

As the winter is approaching, fearing early snowfall in the high-altitude areas of the state, scores of shepherds are seen on the highways these days with their flocks of animals migrating to warmers places in lower hills.

The change in the snowline during the past few years and global warming have impacted their traditional routes of seasonal migration, making their life risky and making search for new pastures difficult. Global warming has led to erratic rainfall. Some regions have seen an increase in the intensity of rainfall coupled with unseasonal hailstorms.

The shepherds are from the traditional Gaddi community and they have been moving like this every year since generations. Every year, they lose hundreds of sheep and goat because of unusual snowfall and heavy rains in higher hills of the state. During the last winter, hundreds of sheep were buried alive near the Jalsu Pass (Baijnath) when avalanches hit a shepherds’ camp.

During the summer, they move up in high altitude areas of Dhauladhars, Chhota Bhanghal, Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur and in parts of Chamba district. During the winter, they roam from one place to other in Una, Bilaspur, Kangra, Hamirpur and Sirmaur districts in search of better pastures for their animals.

Trilok Kapoor, chairman of HP State Wool Federation, said that because of the impact of global warming and unusual rainfall and snow in the high altitude areas of the state many shepherds had stopped rearing sheep. Besides, grasslands have also shrunk in the past few years because of stringent environment laws. He said that the new generation was not willing to take over the profession anymore. There is an acute shortage of manpower for grazing animals.

The other threat is the foot and mouth disease, which has become quite common among animals. The livestock has become more prone to lice and ticks. The increase in temperature has aggravated the weed problem in the hills because of shrinking pastures.

Caption: Shepherds with livestock move to lower hills.