Yarkhun village decides to abandon goat farming

CHITRAL: The villagers of Bang-Payeen, Yarkhun, have taken a bold step to abandon their centuries-old tradition of goat farming. They have given the deadline of March 31, 2016, by which there will be no goat in the village. After the 2015 destructive floods in the valley, the villagers realized that goat was one of the major causes of floods. But it seems far away that the rural population of Upper Chitral develops the same thinking and takes decision on its own in line with that of the villagers of Bang-Payeen. During the last two decades, the number of goats in the valley has increased fourfold. The people hired Gujr shepherds at nominal wages and every household doubled its stock plus the goats of the shepherds overburdened the limited pastures. Unrestricted cutting of trees by the day-to-day increasing population had already turned the mountains into barren when the Gujrs came to cleanshave the remnants. Agriculture and goat farming has been the only sources of living of the people of Chitral for unknown period. Goats were more beneficial than any other domestic animal. Its hair was used to make carpets (palask) and ropes; its skin was the best material for making bags and shoes, and its excrement the finest fertilizer. Local shepherds were easily available for grazing.
Our forefathers had their own traditional rules of pastures. They would never allow their mountains to be ruined by excessive grazing and cutting of wild plants. They used to order “Saq” (restriction on use) for a certain and certain area for a couple of years so that it could revive in to greenery, again. The violators of the Saq were severely punished. With the passage of time, the villagers’ interest in their pastures decreased when they diverted their attention to other means of income such as government service and labour out of their native villages. Local shepherds preferred other labour on goat grazing. However, the rural population was continued goat keeping and introduced ‘Sosiri’ (grazing goats turn by turn). This practice remained for a while and then a time came when there was no young man to perform Sosiri because the youth was engaged in schooling and their elders went out of their villages for labour. At this stage, the Gujr were attracted to upper valleys of Chitral with their goats. These shepherds freely plundered the wild habitats. Besides cutting trees for their goats and fuel purposes, they started business of selling firewood which they brought daily. During the summer when they stayed on the highlands, they burnt a big portion of the Juniper and Birch wood to get coal to be sold to ironsmiths at higher rate than the firewood.[caption id="attachment_31740" align="aligncenter" width="679"] File photo[/caption] The old ‘Gram’ system was disturbed with the introduction of the village organizations and the traditional authority of the village elders ceased. These V/Os could not properly replace the Gram system to safeguard the natural assets of the villagers. Their attention remained focused on the financial uplift of their members through small-scale projects like construction and repairs of water channels, link-roads, bridges and protection walls. No guidance was provided to conserve their natural resources. Now when our mountains have become depleted of plants and 60 per cent of our glaciers have melted, NGOs and government have awakened. There is still some chance to save what is left over. The district government has become functional and it should be its first priority to take viable action for conservation of our mountain life. The following measures are suggested. 1. Ban should be imposed on goat farming in the areas more vulnerable to floods and sliding. 2. Gujrs may be restricted to their native valleys with a limited number of livestock and they may be attracted to some other means of income. 3. Reforestation of highlands and soil conservation may be planned and carried out through the local village organizations. 4. Channelization of the rivers and streams should be given priority so that the river beds could be made productive to lessening dependency on mountains foliage and fuel. 5. Installation of Mini hydro electric power plants and provision of cheap electricity for domestic use will ensure revival of our mountains’ life and reduce emission of hazardous gases causing melting of glaciers.]]>