The Himalayas, or Himalaya is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has several peaks exceeding an elevation of 8,000 m (26,000 ft) including Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. The mountain range runs for 2,400 km (1,500 mi) as an arc from west-northwest to east-southeast at the northern end of the Indian subcontinent.
Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pastoral tribes slowly decreased, reaching an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world as of 1995.
Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, movement in plains or plateaus (horizontal transhumance) is more susceptible to disruption by climatic, economic, or political change.
Laghman is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, minarets, monuments, and other cultural relics that are manifestation of its old history and culture. The city of Mihtarlam serves as the capital of the province. In some historical texts the name is written as "Lamghan" or as "Lamghanat".
The Adivasi are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term adivasi is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. However, the Government of India officially does not use the word Adivasi, instead use Scheduled Tribes and Janjati as defined by the Constitution of India. Most of those Adivasi groups are notified as the Scheduled Tribe for the provision of Indian constitution.
The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and is also home to the Soanian Middle Paleolithic archaeological culture.
The Dhangars are caste of people found in the Indian states of Maharashtra, northern Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh. They are referred to as Gavli Dhangars in northern Maharashtra and the forested hill tracts of India's Western Ghats, there are many distinct Gavli castes in Maharashtra and Dhangar Gavli is one of them.
Rajaji National Park is a national park and tiger reserve in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. that encompasses the Shivaliks, near the foothills of the Himalayas. It covers 820 km2 (320 sq mi) and is included in three districts of Uttarakhand—Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal. In 1983, three wildlife sanctuaries in the area were merged into one.
The Maldhari is a occupational term or title used by several herdsmen or animal husbandry castes.
Nomadic pastoralism also known as Nomadic herding, is a form of pastoralism in which livestock are herded in order to seek for fresh pastures on which to graze. True nomads follow an irregular pattern of movement, in contrast with transhumance, where seasonal pastures are fixed. However, this distinction is often not observed and the term 'nomad' used for both—and in historical cases the regularity of movements is often unknown in any case. The herded livestock include cattle, water buffalo, yaks, llamas, sheep, goats, reindeer, horses, donkeys or camels, or mixtures of species. Nomadic pastoralism is commonly practised in regions with little arable land, typically in the developing world, especially in the steppe lands north of the agricultural zone of Eurasia. Pastoralists often trade with sedentary agrarians, exchanging meat for grains; however, they have been known to raid.
The Bakarwal, are a nomadic ethnic group who along with Gujjars, have been listed as Scheduled Tribes in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh since 1991. Bakerwal and Gujjar is the largest Muslim tribe and the third-largest ethnic community in the Indian part of Jammu and Kashmir.
Nomads are known as a group of communities who travel from place to place for their livelihood. Some are salt traders, fortune-tellers, conjurers, ayurvedic healers, jugglers, acrobats, actors, storytellers, snake charmers, animal doctors, tattooists, grindstone makers, or basketmakers. Some anthropologists have identified about 8 nomadic groups in India, numbering perhaps 1 million people—around 0.12 percent of the country's billion-plus population. Aparna Rao and Michael Casimir estimated that nomads make up around 7% of the population of India.
The North Indian state of Himachal Pradesh is a state that has remained largely uninfluenced by Western culture. Himachal Pradesh is a multi-religion practising, multicultural and multilingual state. Some of the most commonly spoken languages are Hindi and the various Pahari languages. The Hindu communities residing in Himachal include the Brahmins, Rajputs, Kannets, Rathis and Kolis. There is also a tribal population in the state which mainly comprises Gaddis, Kinnarms, Gujjars, Pangawals and Lahaulis.
The Gurjar are an agricultural ethnic community, residing mainly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, divided internally into various clan groups. They were traditionally involved in agriculture, pastoral and nomadic activities and formed a large heterogeneous group. The historical role of Gurjars has been quite diverse in society: at one end they have been found related to several kingdoms and, at the other end, some are still nomads with no land of their own.
The Changpa, or Champa, are a semi-nomadic Tibetan people found mainly in the Changtang in Ladakh, India. A smaller number resides in the western regions of the Tibet Autonomous Region and were partially relocated for the establishment of the Changtang Nature Reserve. By 1989, there were half a million nomads living in the Changtang area.
The Society for the Promotion of Himalayan Indigenous Activities (SOPHIA) is a non-profit organisation based in the state of Uttarakhand in India. SOPHIA's office is located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, while its operational coverage extends through the states of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Uttarakhand (UK), and Himachal Pradesh (HP). The organisation works for indigenous communities to improve their living conditions and to facilitate the process of claiming forests rights through the 2006 Forest Rights Act. SOPHIA's director is Praveen Kaushal.
Kala Kamala is a village located within the Gujrat district of Punjab, Pakistan, it is approximately 88 miles southeast of Islamabad, the capital city of the country. The village was said to have been founded by two brothers, Kala and Kamala, belonging to the Gujjar ethnic group, and stands as a cultural emblem of the Gujjar community's heritage in the region.
Aparna Rao was a German anthropologist who performed studies on social groups in Afghanistan, France, and some regions of India. Her doctorate studies focused on anthropogeography, ethnology, and Islamic studies. Rao taught anthropology at the University of Cologne, serving for a brief time as chair of the Department of Ethnology at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, Germany.
Van Gujjari is a language variety of Gujari and the native language of Van Gujjars of India that mostly reside in the Sivalik Hills and Bhabar regions of in Uttarakhand, and as well in the Tarai region of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in India, and in Nepal. Van Gujjari is related to Dogri and Punjabi. By 2024, over 170 children's books were translated into Van Gujjari for teaching young children. Conservationist Taukeer Alam has published three books covering the traditional knowledge and literature of the Van Gujjar community in Van Gujjari.
Taukeer Alam Lodha is an Indian nature conservationist, writer, community educator and birder from Uttarakhand. He has documented the traditional knowledge of the Van Gujjar people from the Sivalik Hills region, authoring three books and translating over 170 children's books in his native language, Van Gujjari. He has established community-based education from displaced Van Gujjar families and worked with the state forest department to educate over 4,000 students on environmental protection. He is a 2022 Inlaks Shivdasani Fellow, a Sanctuary Asia awardee and a Samvaad Fellow.
