Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 1: In view of migration of nomadic Gujjars to neighbouring States from J&K, the tribal elders today appealed migratory groups not to leave J&K as new laws will protect their identity, culture, life style and ethnicity as Scheduled Tribes besides boost to livelihood.
The Gujjar community members were speaking at a programme organised here by Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation.
The programme was presided over by tribal scholar, Dr. Javaid Rahi and a number of youth attended the programme.
Rahi in his address stated that this is a matter of grave concern for the community that nomadic (Banhara) Gujjars are leaving J&K in good numbers towards Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, Uttarakhand etc.
He claimed to have consulted many migratory tribal elders that new laws are expected to be implemented in J&K shortly so they should wait.
Rahi also said that Banhara (who lives in forests) Gujjars of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Kishtwar and Udhampur districts are migrating to other States as they face extreme shortage of fodder, space for their animals, evictions, closures on government lands, border firing, low rates of milk products and other issues.
“Sympathy wave towards nomadic issues is evolving rapidly in power corridors and we have to wait for better deals from government,” speakers in the meeting said appealing to the government to concede their demands so that they may avoid migrations to other areas.
Those who spoke in the meeting were Ishtaq Misbah, Sadiq Chowdhary, Zahid Chowdhary, Zulkarnain Chowdhary and others.
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