Van Gujjars: India’s Troubled Nomadic Tribe

Van Gujjars are India’s legendary & colorful nomads, mostly Muslims, tending to their buffaloes in the green pasture land in the Himalayas or its foothills. Their entry into forests, their abode for centuries, is now being increasingly blocked in the name of environmental protection.

The New York Times brings this poignant story alive in a beautiful photo-essay Showcase: Traveling With the Van Gujjar Tribe. “The Van Gujjar have been living and migrating with the buffalo for more than 1,500 years. But in recent decades, their area has been absorbed into national parkland and divided into new states.

“Government agencies are throwing up roadblocks, with claims that the tribe has no residential status and that grazing causes environmental degradation. Slowly, the authorities are intimidating the estimated population of 50,000 to 70,000 to settle in villages, essentially becoming conservation refugees.” To read the NYT article please click here…

All this is posing a serious threat to their livelihood, culture and lifestyle. There is no proof that their forest-friendly life ever posed a danger to the flora and fauna. Interestingly, these Muslim Van Gujjars do not eat meat. During my treks in the interior parts of my home state Himachal Pradesh (and adjoining state of Uttarakhand), I often interact with these fascinating people.

Americans would understand better if we recall the Yellowstone incident. Yosemite Park, which, as Ken Burns has now made widely known, was cleared of its indigenous population before it ever became a park. Then Yellowstone was cleared of its population.

The Christian Science Monitor has another moving story on Van Gujjars…”Many Van Gujjar grazing areas have been incorporated into wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, and India has long followed a conservation policy of ‘no people in parks’ (except tourists). Since the creation of Rajaji National Park in 1992, park authorities have pressured the Van Gujjars who winter there to settle in villages and learn to farm.

“Despite years of protest, 1,390 families have been relocated from Rajaji to settlements, where buffalo herding is impossible and their nomadic culture can’t survive.” More here…

Here is a link to an NGO working among the Van Gujjars…

The Youtube video below captures the life of Van Gujjars…