Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 22: Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes save precious lives of hundreds of human and animals who met with natural disasters every year in north-western Himalaya, said a study conducted by Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation (TRCF)-a main organisation of community.
They without any assistance from Government or any other agency use traditional knowledge to manage big natural disasters like cloudbursts, snowstorm, landslides thundering and lighting in hilly and forest areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pardesh and Uttaranchal during extreme weather conditions and save lives.
Releasing the study, well known Gujjar Scholar Dr Javaid Rahi said though Gujjars and Bakerwals are not trained by any agency to mange natural disasters but they are equipped with the traditional knowledge, which they inherited from their ancestors since centuries to deal with such catastrophes during their day-to-day life, thus they save precious lives of human beings and animals.
The Study said that during extreme adversities of climate Gujjars and Bakerwal gives equal preference to save human and animal lives. Due to change of weather the natural adversities have been increasing day by day the study said and added that the loss of human and animal lives have been increasing rapidly during last 10 years.
The Study said that tribal people strictly follow the weather advisories of their elders to avoid major loss of human life and livestock, adding that they rarely believe in forecast of weather broadcast from radio.
The head of each ‘Dera’ (Tribal family) issued instruction to his family everyday because of minute to minute changing weather conditions on upper reaches, the study said.
The study reveals that tribes do not wait for help from any side, they save lives as quick as they can. They do not to act in panic as they treat it as routine of their life, the study said.
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