Srinagar: Seasonal nomadic migration in Jammu and Kashmir potentially contributes Rs 10,800 crore worth of “ecosystem services” annually that helps protect and rejuvenate the fragile western Himalayan region, a new report claims.

The report, which is yet to be published but which this reporter had the chance to read, quantifies the economic contribution of more than 630,000 pastoralists belonging to Gujjar, Bakkerwal, Gaddi and Sippi communities in J&K towards preserving the sensitive rangelands in the western Himalayas, a climate change hotspot.

“The annual ecosystem services … are conservatively worth Rs 5,880 crore ($705 million), with potential full-year benefits exceeding Rs 10,800 crore ($1.29 billion) … (while the) true value is substantially higher,” the report says.

The report categorises “ecosystem services” as an array of activities triggered by the seasonal migration of pastoralist communities from the lowlands of J&K at the onset of late spring to the highlands, and their return journey in the early autumn before the winter freeze sets in.

The report titled ‘How Can India Recognise and Integrate the Ecosystem Services of Transhumant Pastoralist Communities into Climate and Environmental Policy’ bases the calculations on the “conservative” value deployed by climate scientists around the world to understand the economics of ecosystem services.

It was authored by Shahid Choudhary, a 2009-batch IAS officer from J&K, as part of his Masters in public policy at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. The effort supervised by academics from Oxford and the Boston University and is being developed into a research paper. The Wire is choosing to report on it because it is the first-of-its-kind estimate on communities who have come under pressure from the administration who since the reading down of Article 370 have accused them of encroaching on forest land.

Groundwater recharge, prevention of forest fires, and more

The report argues that the migration in the higher reaches of the river basins of Chenab, Jhelum, Sindh and Ravi played a critical role in stabilising J&K’s watersheds, rejuvenating mountain ecosystems and protecting the forests from wildfires.

Using official data from a 2021 study conducted by J&K’s tribal affairs department, existing peer-reviewed studies and climate science, the report estimates a value of Rs 70,000 per hectare for grazing-linked ecosystem services totalling Rs 8,400 crore annually for 1.2 million hectares of land involved in the migration in J&K.

Using this analysis, the report states that Rs 125-crore worth of services were contributed to prevent forest fires around more than 90,000 GIS-mapped sites linked to the seasonal migration, also known as transhumance, in the Union territory.

The report estimates that watershed protection services through reduction in soil loss, groundwater recharge and associated ecosystem services to be worth Rs 960-1200 crores annually, adding that the total figure excludes the “harder-to-monetise” carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

Citing the examples of Switzerland, Kenya and Peru, the report argues that these pastoralist communities should be compensated for their work in the western Himalayas through cash transfer and carbon credit programmes.

The seasonal migration traversing hundreds of kilometres across alpine and sub-alpine rangelands of Jammu and Kashmir is reported to have started in the 19th century.

According to official data, more than a million Gujjars and Bakerwals live in J&K, making it the third largest ethnic group which comprises 74% of the Union territory’s tribal population, according to the Census 2011.

Cultural traditions

The report notes that the seasonal migration promoted fresh growth in mountain ecosystems by dispersing seeds while the movement of animals added vital nutrients in the form of manure to the rangelands which improved soil’s moisture retention and promoted greenery.

“Alongside these ecological functions, transhumance preserves cultural traditions, ethnolinguistic diversity, and traditional ecological knowledge vital for adaptive resilience,” it says, denouncing the projection of these communities as “beneficiaries of welfare rather than providers of ecological services”.

With the United Nations set to observe 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, the report calls on the government of India to raise awareness about rangelands which make up the country’s 40% landmass and the communities that depend on them, and advocate for global recognition of South Asian mountain ecosystems.

Role of policy planning

Shahid Chaudhary told The Wire that the absence of evidence-based policy planning has over the decades has deprived the pastoralist communities of basic civic facilities due to their nomadic lifestyle. Limited access to education and healthcare has stagnated their economic fortunes, pushing them among the poorest of the poor in J&K.

“These communities are not residual livelihoods of the past but indispensable partners in shaping India's environmental and climate future. They are ecological stewards whose mobility sustains fragile mountain ecosystems and contributes significantly to our climate resilience,” he said.

The 30-page report states that the role of these communities has been neglected in the country's development policy frameworks, “These communities provide valuable climate adaptation services but sadly these services are not yet fully acknowledged and supported by the existing systems. This report is an attempt to address this invisibility,” he said.

As noted before, the reading down of Article 370 in 2019, pastoralist communities have come under pressure from the administration who accuse them of encroaching on forest land, as well as from security agencies amid an increase in violence related to militancy in the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Forest Rights Act 2006, which was extended to Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, grants land rights to forest-dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers along with the rights to grazing, development and forest management among others.

However, tribal activists argue that the high rejection rate of around 87% land rights applications along with the allegations of forced eviction of the pastoralist communities from their homes after 2019 indicated that the law had been undermined in Jammu and Kashmir.

The report calls for including the government departments along with panchayats and pastoralist associations for “institutional co-governance” of rangelands.

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