Survival at stake

To escape a harsh winter in Kashmir, 25-year-old Rahmatullah undertook seasonal migration, herding his flock earlier last month.

But before he could reach his destination in Jammu, he was crushed to death on October 19, along with over 30 sheep and goats, by a speeding truck midway in Ramban district.

The fatal accident on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, however, was not a stray incident. Every now and then, there are reports of the pastoral nomads, already threatened by climate change and modernity, increasingly losing their livestock in road accidents on migration routes.

The district administration of Poonch took to Facebook and expressed its helplessness in June this year. The then District Development Commissioner (DDC), Poonch, Mohamamd Aijaz, posted a photograph of two Bakerwals and their bank account details, asking philanthropists to help the nomads who had suffered a loss of over ₹6 lakh.

On the way to their summer destination in the Kashmir Valley from Rajouri district, the duo had lost a flock of over 70 sheep after a speeding vehicle rammed into their caravan on Mughal Road — which connects Jammu region with the Kashmir Valley.

“Loss of livestock of nomads in road accidents is not covered under any government scheme,” Aijaz told the writer, adding that “if the livestock of nomads perish in natural calamities, it is covered under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) scheme.”

But, according to community members, they rarely get financially compensated for loss of livestock in road accidents or natural calamities.

Pittance, as compensation

As recently as November 2, over a 100 cattle of nomads were killed and scores of others injured when lightning struck in Rajouri district. Even though a police team visited the site, the affected families remain clueless about any sort of financial compensation coming their way.

Mohamamd Razak (50), a community member, recalled how during their summer migration from Rajouri towards Peer-Ki Gali area in Poonch during the second week of May, heavy rainfall caught them off guard and there was no tree cover or rock structure to take shelter.

“Within minutes, a thunder storm began, followed by hail. In the absence of any shelter, goats and sheep rushed towards a flooded rivulet and got washed away,” an emotional Razak said, adding that over 70 cattle perished in the incident.

The then DDC, Rajouri, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, announced a compensation of ₹35,000 each to the nine affected families.

However, the compensation turned out to be a pittance as the market price of one sheep is between ₹6,000 and ₹7,000, which soars to ₹25,000 during the Eid festival. To rear the livestock, a nomad has to purchase everything — from fodder to medicines — besides paying rent for using farms near camping sites.

Choudhary said the small financial assistance was provided to the victims according to SDRF guidelines. “For a sheep aged one year that perishes in a natural calamity, the relief is ₹1,650 and for sheep over two years of age, the compensation is ₹3,000. Similarly, for a cow or buffalo or pony, it is ₹25,000.”

Choudhary suggested that the State Tribal Department, which has adequate funds, could be used for providing insurance cover to the livestock. But that needs a government policy.

Justice unaffordable

Jammu-based senior advocate Ajay Vaid, who has experience of over two decades dealing with cases filed under the Motor Vehicle Act and those involving insurance cover, said that police file a criminal case in the court only when the victims move the court. “The nomads have to engage an advocate to pursue the claim petition against the insurance company. The courts are already overburdened and it usually takes years to get the case settled. So, it’s unthinkable for them,” said Vaid.

The community members, however, usually don’t have means to fight legal battles in regular courts and therefore hardly get compensated over loss of livestock.

Ironically, in the last over 40 years since the establishment of the Gujjar and Bakerwal Development Advisory Board, only four or five recommendations have been implemented by the government, according to Choudhary Shah Mohammad, who was a member of the Board for 17 years. “Rest of the recommendations remain on paper only,” he said.

Economic boycott

Pertinently, calls for economic boycott of nomadic tribes — who have already been fighting a lost battle to maintain a traditional lifestyle against the onslaught of urbanisation, denial of forest rights and shrinking natural resources — are being repeatedly given by the Hindutva groups in Jammu region.

Amid growing acrimony following the Kathua rape and murder case, local residents in many areas have stopped renting out land to the nomads. Additionally, they have been asked to stop selling fodder to them or buying wool and dairy products from them when they return this winter.

Not even a single family of the Bakerwal community has returned to Rasana in Kathua district this winter, where an eight-year-old girl was kidnapped, drugged and gang-raped for a week before she was strangled and stoned to death. The motive, according to the police charge sheet, was to scare away her community from the village.

The writer is a Jammu-based journalist and media fellow with the National Foundation for India