NOMAD`s LAND
More than 200 tribes, comprising 6 per cent of the country's population, are engaged in pastoralism. As grazing resources decline, nomads find themselves pushed against the wall. Migrating along with their livestock, in the plains as well as in the hills, pastoral nomads are being forced to give up their traditional practices. Their groups have typically delineated routes and usufruct agreements with agricultural communities, many of which have endured over time. A progressive decline in common lands is forcing them to join the rural and urban poor.
Pastoral nomads include breeders and herders of camels, donkeys, yaks, pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, buffaloes and cows. Pastoralists from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh travel to Madhya Pradesh with their livestock. Rajasthan receives migrating livestock from Haryana and Punjab. "Rules have changed now,' informs R K Tyagi, a scientist who was earlier with the Indian Grassland Fodder Research Institute.
"Whereas these people had grazing rights, new rules have restricted grazing. The
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