Chakravarty-Kaul, Minoti. 1995. "Upheaval in the Nomad's Trail: Survival in the Forest Commons of Northern India." Presented at "Reinventing the Commons," the fifth annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Bodoe, Norway, May 24-28, 1995.

Abstract

"The Gaddi shepherds of the alpine tracts are in the eye of a storm brewing in the foothills of the Himalayas. Dams, National Parks and expanding infra-structure are changing the nature of nomadic trails. At stake is the survival of both indigenous 'managers' and their self-governing systems of customary rights in natural resources.

"The paper attempts to establish that transhumance has been an occupational technique to make possible the optimal use of the geo-morphological relation of the Himalayan range to the riverine plains of north India. Such has been the character of nomadic pastoralism practised by two distinct people--the Gujars and the Gaddis."