Kathua: A day in the life of the Bakarwal nomads

The Bakarwal, a nomadic Muslim community, are part of a larger ethnic group known as Gujjars, which dominates large parts of Northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Express Photos by Praveen Khanna)

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The two communities make up 11 per cent of Jammu and Kashmir's population and are the single largest Muslim group. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Both groups are pastoral. The Gujjars are in the dairy business, and settled in several parts of Jammu through to the Chenab Valley. The nomadic sheep and goat-herding Bakarwal migrate with their flock to Kashmir and Ladakh in the summer and to Jammu in the winter, camping at forest sites they have used for centuries (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

Recent eviction drives, driven by local misconceptions that the groups are responsible for large-scale encroachment of forest land — have left both communities fearful that the PDP-BJP government is planning to take away these traditional rights. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

They say they have been on the side of Indian security forces since 1947. In Kashmir, they are perceived as helping security forces against militants. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Tribal leaders have demanded a government white paper identifying those encroaching upon forest and state land and take action; they say these are influential people, both Hindu and Muslim, who connived with officials and sold such land to those who had migrated to Jammu during the militancy-hit 1990s. Rather than a tribal policy, tribal leaders have sought laws safeguarding the rights of nomads over forests. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

They were designated the Scheduled Tribe status in 1991. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

The Gujjars and Bakarwals number roughly 20 lakh, or 80 per cent of the Scheduled Tribe population of the state. Of them, only four lakh (three lakh of them Bakarwals) now continue the practice of migration twice a year, while the others have settled across the Jammu region. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

In 1991, when the Centre declared the Gujjars and Bakarwals STs, they were granted 10 per cent reservation in jobs and promotions in the state government, and 7 per cent in Central government departments (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

(Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)