Shepherds in search of green pastures for their herds of sheep and goats have moved into a field on the hills surrounding Panchgani in the Sahyadri mountains of Maharashtra.

After unloading their three ponies, they set up camp, pitch their two rather rudimentary tents for the rainy season, arrange water, and collect firewood for the improvised chula. On the menu tonight, as every evening: rice and dal.

Before nightfall, the men erect a fence to park some of their 50 sheep and goats. The fence, consisting of poles and nets, is the most important and essential item of their belongings. Every day they take an hour to set it up. It is part of the daily routine. 

Surprising, but the location of the pen is on a land where not a single blade of grass grows!!

Wouldn’t it have been better to fold the animals on the green slopes of the mountain?

NO!

WHY?

Simply because shepherds are paid by local farmers to park overnight their herds of cattle and / or sheep in a designated field. Every evening, after a day spent in the mountain pastures, the sheep are closed on a fallow plot of land for the night. The quantity of urine and droppings produced during those few hours of gloom provide sufficient fertilizer to enrich the soil before tilling.

After ten days spent in fertilizing the fallow fields around Pangari, the shepherds are back on the road. Their next destination: more parcels to be fertilized!!

India has many pastoralist groups. There are about 200 castes of nomad pastoralists who breed all kinds of animals: cattle, camels, sheep, and even ducks ... The best known of these groups are the Rabaris and Bharwads in the desert regions of Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Gujjars and Gaddis in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, the Dhangars in Maharashtra, the Konare in Tamil Nadu ...

In the past, a relationship of interdependence existed between nomads and farmers. The relationship between land owners and livestock keepers was one of symbiosis. The farmers were more than willing to make their land available in return for the precious dung that the animals left behind. The movement of pastoralists coincided with the cycles of agriculture. Thus, before the sowing season (beginning of monsoon), pastoralists visited villages to fertilize the fields. To avoid overgrazing of certain areas, roads to be followed and villages to be visited by each group were defined by ancestral rules and traditions.

The shepherds played an important role in the village economy by converting grass from common pasture lands near villages into manure. It is estimated that 1,000 sheep and goats herded on 1 acre of land for few nights provide enough fertilizer for several years. A hundred sheep closed for a month provide the equivalent of 25 loads of manure equal to 2500 kg of excrement.

Until recently, the nomads were guests whose arrival was eagerly anticipated. In Punjab, the nomadic herders from Rajasthan were greeted with milk, sugar and wheat. Their honorable services were rewarded by payments in cash and in kind.

Today, everything has changed. If in the past, the nomads were valued for their contributions in organic manure, today they are considered unwanted intruders. The villagers, who in the past, welcome the nomads with open arms, now ask the government to restrict their movements!! In places, the conflict has gone out of control and animals are shot in order to protect cash crops.

This change of attitude towards pastoralists can be explained primarily by a change in cropping patterns. With the Green Revolution and year-round agriculture, land is rarely left fallow. Furthermore, with the Green Revolution and the growing consumption of chemical fertilizers, farmers no longer need herds of sheep to fertilize the soil.

Due to loss of pasture lands, establishment of national parks and nature reserves, road construction, conversion of grassland into farmland, expansion of industrial zones and urban areas ..., the situation is becoming increasingly difficult for pastoralists and many are forced to abandon their traditional lifestyle to settle down.

The disappearance of these groups of pastoralists entails, among other things, the loss of valuable organic manure. Dramatic loss when we know that more than 5000 tonnes of top soil are eroded annually and intensive farming practices have virtually ruined the land leaving no nutrients into the soil. With 60% of India’s total area under cultivation mostly degraded, soon will come the day when shepherds will be again in great demand to rebuild the land’s fertility and productivity!! Let us hope they will still be around then!!