A Study of Transhumance Pastoralism in Village Utla, District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
A Study of Transhumance Pastoralism in Village Utla, District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Muhammad Jamal Nasir*, Anwar Saeed Khan, Said Alam and Riyasat Sultan
ABSTRACT
Utla Village possesses a great deal of variations in the physiography of different parts of the village and therefore transhumance has been a common and traditional practice. The present research aims to study the causes and mechanisms of seasonal migration, to find out the causes responsible for its decline and to bring in light the effects of modernization on transhumance in Village Utla, district Swabi. The study is based on questionnaire survey. In Utla only 40 households practice transhumance, and the present study covers all the households who practice transhumance. Land use data were collected from revenue office Topi. Patterns of transhumance in Utla reflected the distinctive environmental and socio-economic conditions. The system and schedule devised by the local population is based on indigenous knowledge and is for the better management of forests, grasses and agriculture resources. According to field survey, availability of fodder (grasses) at the pastures, ban on cutting of grasses and grazing in the village, management of land at pastures, refuge from scorching heat of summer are the major causes of seasonal migration. There used to be a time when almost every household use to move to pasture before the onsets of summers, but today in Utla out of total 745 households, only 40 households practice seasonal migrations. Though seasonal migration in village Utla is as old as the village by itself, it is on decline. The field survey suggested that Decrease in the number of Livestock, increasing Employment opportunities, availability of dairy products in the market etc. are the most important causes contributing to the decline of seasonal migration. A very interesting cause referred by the majority of respondent responsible for the decline of seasonal migration is increased number of marriages (trans-cultural) between Utla males to the females from down country. Transhumance pastoralists are very productive yet socially neglected population group of society. They remain a resource, a system of producing meat and milk etc. This resource need to upheld and managed effectively by understanding the mechanism of transhumance and pastoral society as widely as possible, making both policy and the effective management of natural resources.
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