Sajid Raina
The lockdown across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to prevent the spread of Covid-19 has not only affected the normal life here but has also made the movement of nomads, who migrate to pastures located in the upper reaches during summers with their livestock, difficult.
Nomads migrate to Kashmir valley from various parts of the Jammu region during summers with their livestock to stay in the pastures located in high mountains and return to plains before the onset of winter.
The tradition has been continuing for decades now, however, the Covid-19 lockdown has also made the movement of these nomads difficult. Nazir Ahmed (60), a nomad who had been walking on foot along with his family for the last two months and reached Bandipora yesterday from Rajouri said that they had to face lot of difficulties due to the lockdown.
While speaking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) Nazir who was a part of a nomad group said that they reached Shopian on foot from Pir Panjal and stayed there for few days and then they left for Srinagar and it took them ten days to reach there.
“We arrived here yesterday. We will stay for two or three days after that we will leave for Gurez valley which is 80 km away from Bandipora.”
He said “On the way, we felt like there was no one in the world without us. A strange world has been created as we heard in Srinagar that people don’t even have to shake hands with another because of some disease. We were shocked to hear it,” he said.
“I don’t know the name of this disease but we heard that people who get this disease infect others as well. On the we had to face many difficulties as we found everything closed and there was silence all over like one was alive. We faced difficulties in getting essentials while on way to Kashmir,” he said.
He said that even if they would find someone on way, “he would not even talk to them as he was scared that we might be having that disease. It was very difficult for us to move from one place to another because at several places we were harassed by locals.”
Earlier, the nomads were advised to suspend their bi-annual migration to the pastures in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in view of Covid-19 lockdown—( KNO)
