By the end of November 2023, winter had already started in Gadhawa of Dang district. After travelling miles in the village area, we reached the house of 80-year-old Kanhaiyalal Yadav. There were some huts, haystacks, and barns with buffaloes tied in the courtyard, and two cows were in the shed. In the family, all members who can work are devoted to the care of the buffaloes. The men milked the buffaloes, while the women cooked and cleaned the pantry.
That morning, in Parnaha in Gadhawa rural municipality 6, Kanhaiyalal went ahead to milk the buffalo with a bucket. Maybe because the buffalo saw a new face, the milking ended earlier than usual.
“Now the calf will eat the rest,” said Kanhaiyalal, showing half a bucket of milk.
His elder son, Anurag Yadav, 62, and nephew, Lal Bahadur, 31, were already milking buffaloes. Even before the sunlight broke through the morning fog, they had finished milking the buffaloes, fetching water for them, and even collecting grass and hay for them to feed on.
After completing their tasks, they sat down to drink tea. Around half past seven, Lal Bahadur collected the milk in the cans and rode towards the dairy on a motorcycle.
While sipping tea in the courtyard, Kanhaiyalal called his wife, Chhatrapati Yadav, to bring a bell. Waiting, he said, “It was not like this before. By this time, these buffaloes would have gone to the forest.”
Sitting on a chair, he held up the iron bell, which he could hardly fit in his fist, and reminisced, “After we finished eating in the morning, we would head to the forest, searching for the herd of buffaloes, listening to the sound of bells hanging around their necks.”
Now, however, with no place for the buffalos to graze and a lack of water in the rivers, they just take the buffalos out on a stroll.
“This bell is useless now,” he said.
Times are changing
Kanhaiyalal of Gadhawa has witnessed wholesale changes when it comes to buffalo rearing in the village. The bell, now collecting dust in one corner of Kanhaiyalal’s house, is not only a symbol of his ancestral profession but also a witness to the changes he has seen along the way.
As times change, questions arise about how long the Yadav community, considered descendants of the Mahishpal dynasty, will continue their traditional livelihood of rearing buffaloes. For Kanhaiyalal, the bell serves as a constant reminder of this perplexing question.
Buffalo rearing is facing a crisis not only in Dang but also across Nepal. This is thanks to rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles, the youth not being interested and lack of grazing area and water resources. The Yadav community in Dang is currently grappling with an environmental crisis as water sources such as forests, streams, rivers, and ponds in the Terai region are being destroyed.
Despite the looming threat, they have been unable to find any study or data that could explain the decreasing number in their profession. However, during the field study conducted for this report, we observed that they have undoubtedly been affected by changes in the environment and the exploitation of natural resources.
The experience of three generations of some families in Gadhawa and Rajpur rural municipalities of Dang, where the Yadav community is predominantly settled, indicates that traditional animal husbandry has been facing a crisis for the past few years. And the data also corroborates this.
The concerning issue is that the elderly here are worried that this profession will vanish in a few years, while the youth are seeking alternatives. However, at the three tiers of government and the community level, there are no new programmes or public awareness initiatives to address the issue.
The harrowing data
According to the National Agriculture Census 2021/22, over the last 10 years, the number of farmer families rearing buffaloes and cattle across the country has decreased from 1,669,000 to 1,417,000. Similarly, the total number of buffaloes and cattle has also decreased. According to the 2011/12 census, there were 3,174,000 buffaloes and cattle in the country, but by 2021/22, this number had dropped to 2,923,000.
Locals say the number of livestock is decreasing due to the shrinking of grazing areas and rivers being encroached upon in many places.
Kanhaiyalal, who grew up watching his father Kallu Yadav graze buffaloes, took over the reins. Following suit, his son Anurag and other family members have supported him. However, the number of buffaloes has continued to decrease.
“During my father’s time, we had around 100 buffaloes,” he said. “Now we only have 20. I know this number will go down in the coming years.”
Researchers say that seasonal activities directly impact agriculture and animal husbandry. According to Hemu Kafle, a scientist who has been studying the effects of drought on agriculture, the alteration in rainfall patterns during monsoons and winters is affecting village wells, rice fields, and feeding ponds.
“Small ponds used to be a common sight in the fields of Tarai. Now, there are very few,” Kafle said. Chandra Kishore, an independent journalist working in the region, agrees with Kafle and says the water levels have also gone down in many ponds and streams.
“These buffaloes need water. People use ground water to cool them off but it is not the same and buffaloes sense that,” said Chandra Kishore.
Back at Kanhaiyalal’s home, the family is preparing to take the buffaloes out to graze. As he cannot do it due to his old age, Kanhaiyalal takes his nephew Lal Bahadur’s help.
After a while, Lal Bahadur began loosening the rope around the buffaloes, with Kanhaiyalal following slowly behind. About 100 meters south, they reached the Sikrahawa River. Standing on the riverbank, Kanhaiyalal remembered how the buffaloes used to enjoy themselves in the river 10 years ago. But now, there was only ankle-deep water in the river, running slightly to one side, infested with algae.
Once in the water, some of the buffaloes started playing while others drank from the river, however little was left there. Lal Bahadur began bathing the buffalo near the bridge, where the water level was slightly higher. Splashing the water with his hands, he bathed the buffaloes. After a while, the buffaloes stood up and moved on.
Lal Bahadur walked behind him, picked up the slippers he had taken off, and started shouting ‘rah rah’ and ‘jha jha’ (a local way to guide the buffaloes while they graze and roam) with a stick in his hand. His knees were damp with the water, to which he adds, “We couldn’t come to this place even five years ago. The buffaloes would play in the water themselves, and we would swim in this river.”
Along with Lal Bahadur, buffaloes from other houses in the village also climbed up from the river and left the road. Gwalas (buffalo shepherds) were walking with their herds of buffaloes. Guiding and guarding the mustard fields in the nearby houses from the buffaloes, they reached the Sikrahwa River, which is about 500 meters to the north (both rivers that join the Rapti are named Sikrahwa).
The buffalo roamed around the riverbanks between the two bridges, about one kilometre apart. Around four in the afternoon, Lal Bahadur brought the buffalo home. “It’s enough for today. This is the current way buffaloes go around,” he said.
The shrinking fields
Water and forests are indispensable for rearing buffaloes. However, due to increasing urbanisation and exploitation of natural resources, the grazing areas for buffaloes are shrinking. Simultaneously, the time for buffaloes to roam around in a clean environment and roam/ play in the water is also decreasing.
Kanhaiyalal, a witness to the village’s transformation before his eyes, says, “The once rivers and forests are now settlements, so where can the grass grow? Where is the grazing area?” He leaves the question hanging and walks along the road to return home.
The condition of all seven families in that village who reared buffaloes is the same. Devraj Yadav, 36, from another village of Parnaha, used to go buffalo grazing with his grandfather. Now, his father Gurudayal Yadav, 72 is overseeing the grazing for buffaloes.
“Previously, our cattle rearing relied entirely on grazing. However, raising buffaloes solely through grazing is no longer feasible; now, grass and straw must be provided at home,” said Devraj adding that this has been the case for the past decade.
Recalling how he used to travel within a five-kilometre radius to feed buffaloes all day, he says that now they are taken no more than two kilometres away, and only for grazing. Due to the shrinking of water and grazing areas, the farmers here are compelled to raise livestock at home.
He also recounts that not only did they have to go far in search of the river for water, but they also had to take the buffalo to Rapti further than before. “Some 20-25 years ago, buffaloes were taken to Rapti only after April/May, but now they must be taken at the end of February. Kakrahwa River dries up around January/February.”
This is why many families have started to set up water pumps, which cost around Rs 25,000. However, that too is not a viable option as the area also suffers from underground water scarcity.
Taking care of buffaloes
A buffalo needs at least 70 litres of water a day, for which they depend on the water pumps.
“We could also do farming without bore water. It rained well during the rainy season. It seems that there is less rain now. On top of that, the settlement grew, and the water is drying up,” Devraj said.
Located on the route from Gadhawa towards the southern Nepal-Indian border, in Rajpur Rural Municipality 4, is the Khardaria village. Each household here has around 100 buffaloes, and the majority of women’s time is spent providing water and grass to the buffaloes.
Anjana Yadav, who tends to 150 buffaloes, was about to go and cut grass in the afternoon.
Two women were drawing water while seated on a log positioned above the well. Anjana’s neighbour was coming to fetch another bucket of water for her house. “At least seven family members and over 400 buffaloes rely on this well, This is the water that sustains the buffaloes; we drink it too,” she said.
Since their livelihood is based on buffalo rearing and farming, and they are not only concerned about water; it takes a whole day to collect a heavy load of grass.
“We go to that lake to gather a heavy load of grass,” she said, pointing to the forest of the Mahabharata hills, which is connected to the Indian border in the south. They leave at 8 am and return at 5 pm carrying a heavy load of grass (about 50/60 kg).
Sohan Sah, who has been studying the social and economic conditions of Tarai residents, says that this has a direct impact on human productivity as well as the possibility of advancement of economically backward communities.
“If they spend the day gathering heavy grass, their productivity is limited to that task,” says Sah, a researcher at Martin Chautari, “If so, the standard of living can be raised, and productivity will also increase.
No targeted programme
The local government is yet to introduce a programme targeting this community. Since last year, the Small Farmers and Youth Entrepreneurship Partnership Project has been running in Rajpur and Gadhawa rural municipalities in collaboration with Heifer International.
The cost of this program, which will run for 42 months, is Rs 62 million per municipality, with 70 percent of the investment coming from the municipality.
Yam Narayan Pokharel, chairman of Gadhawa rural municipality, claimed that through this programme the shed waste management and advanced seeds are being looked at.
“But there is no targeted programme for the Yadav community,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Rajpur rural municipality, Yadavs have been targeted and assisted under the programme, said Dhanpatidevi Yadav, deputy chair of the municipality.
“It is incorrect that buffalo-rearing farmers are not included in the programme carried out in conjunction with Heifer,” she said regarding the complaints of farmers from the Yadav community, “Alongside goat rearing, we have also supported the improvement of buffalo sheds.”
The Yadav community, traditionally vegetarian and not involved in goat or chicken farming, comprises the majority of Rajpur and Gadhawa rural municipalities. The locals are displeased that the programme has been introduced specifically for agriculture and animal husbandry. The partnership programme initially focused on goat rearing. However, considering the farmers’ needs, the livestock improvement programme was also partially included, said Mahesh Acharya, Senior Program Officer of Heifer.
Both municipalities have distributed advanced varieties of grass seeds to set water pumps for farmers and address the grass problem. “These programmes were not designed specifically for the Yadav community, but they are also included,” said Gadhawa chair Pokharel.
Anurag Yadav, a farmer from Gadhawa Parnaha, alleges that the municipality provides water pumps, road improvements, and high-grade seeds to people they know rather than to those with actual needs. However, he also acknowledged to avoid repeating past mistakes, they have formed a farmers’ group, and support is now provided solely based on the group’s recommendations.
Kanhaiyalal, a prominent farmer well-versed in the recurring tale of accusations and defences, glanced at the buffalo and remarked to us, “If my lalabalas (referring to his buffaloes as children) cease to exist, what becomes of our identity?” While identity pertains to the livelihood of the Yadav community intertwined with animal husbandry. Despite assertions from the rural municipality regarding improvement in the situation, there are no discernible signs of such progress in the lives of local farmers.
(Prepared in collaboration with Center for Data Journalism Nepal and Earth Journalism Network, alongside Dasharath Ghimire, Dang.)
The post Families rearing buffaloes have shrunk in Dang, their future remains a question appeared first on OnlineKhabar English News.
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