Gujars in the Pakistani Hindu Kushhimalayas: Conflicts and Dilemmas about Lifestyles and Forest Use

Abstract

Introduction For the past several decades forests in the entire Hindu Kush-Himalaya belt are under severe threat of overexploitation. The natural coniferous forests of the Hilkot watershed in the Pakistani Hindu Kush-Himalayas are no exception, and the impact of this threat can be felt in various ways. A complex relationship exists, here as elsewhere, between the forest and the user communities--notably their economies. The ever-increasing population of mountain communities, particularly those who are directly dependent on the forests, along with their growing needs for timber, firewood and fodder, have led to immense pressure on forests (Asghar 1984: 22-23). The user communities in Hilkot consist of various ethnic groups, most of which are hierarchically structured--structures which tend to hinder in finding solutions to the problems of deforestation. One of these communities is that of the Gujars, and this paper deals briefly with the conflicts that arise in the context of their use of the forest. The Gujars in the Mansehra District are often attributed a significant portion of blame for the destruction of the forests in this area. As cattle breeders and herders, their way of life is intimately connected to, and relevant for, the measures that must be taken towards forest conservation. Being poor and of a low social status, they are heavily dependent on the forests (Asghar 1984: 25), and since they also comprise a large percentage of the population, the community as a whole has a major impact on the forests. Thus, several questions need to be asked: which particular uses of the forest are associated with the Gujar way of life? to what extent are they dependent on these? and in which way do these conflict with other uses of these forests? Unfortunately, no studies have been carried out to date among the Gujars in this area. This report thus aims at providing some basic information about their economy, with special emphasis on the role of the forest in their lifestyle. The Distribution of the Gujars In Hilkot, as in the entire District of Mansehra, Gujars represent the largest ethnic group. Though little is known with any certainty about their origins, they have been said to be the original inhabitants of this area (Watson 1907: 62-24). It has also been suggested that they settled mainly in the Punjab at the beginning of sixth century (Ibbetson and Maclagan 1892: 112-13), and the similarities between their language, Gujri, and Punjabi indicate that their roots are in Punjab. Some place names in Punjab, such as Gujrat and Gujranwala, also appear to support this statement. In the seventh century, the Gujar probably began to settle in the mountain valleys in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent (Ibbetson and Maclagan 1982: 33-37). Today their mountain settlements extend from the Central Indian Himalayas (the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) in the east to the Hindukush in the west. Gujar Economic Systems and Way of Life The Gujars largely practise seasonal and vertical nomadism, which has, however, evolved over time into several, partly overlapping, ways of life (Mohammad 1989: 126-27). Each of these overlapping sub-systems depends largely on cattle raising. Vertical nomadism is practised by most of the Gujars in this area. It is characterised by the mobility of the entire household, which spends the winter season in the foothills with their sheep, goats and buffalo herds and moves early in summer to the extensive alpine pastures between the Himalayas and the Hindukush. As opposed to such vertical nomadism, those Gujars who live in the valley bottom and own some land there, or work as tenants, practise a kind of transhumance. After sowing maize on their land, they leave their houses early in summer and shift to their banda--individual farms on the higher slopes that receive the monsoon rains (Fautz 1963: 123-29). Here they again sow some maize and herd their livestock in the forest. …