3 critical after nomadic groups clash over pastures in Ramban

Three of those critically injured on Sunday are being treated at Government Medical College Hospital, Jammu, they added.

Amid rising friction between the two groups over the years, Ramban Deputy Commissioner Mussarat Islam, who visited the area along with SP Mohita Sharma, said police have been asked to set up two more pickets and increase patrolling.

He also asked security forces occupying dominating heights in the remote area to conduct patrolling at regular intervals.

In a late evening meeting to sort out the differences, Islam suggested to representatives of both groups they apply for grant of grazing rights under the Forest Rights Act in the 900-hectare swathe of land.

Until then, the meeting decided, a committee headed by divisional forest officer, Batote, and also comprising tehsildars and SHOs of Batote and Ramban Tehsils, will visit the five villages in the area to demarcate grazing areas for both groups.

Sunday’s clash was not the first between the two groups, known as Hindu Gaddis and Muslim Gujjars.

While the 294 Gaddi families in the area, comprising 3,590 persons and 3,996 animals, are settled in these five villages, nearly 350 Gujjar families, comprising 2,650 persons and 6,356 cattle, migrate from the plains of Udhampur, Jammu and Samba before the onset of summer in April-May.

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The Gujjars stay in the Ladda Dhar highlands till September-October, a practice that has lasted more than a century.

While both the groups have equal rights on use of forests or forest land in the area, informal boundaries drawn up over the years have allowed them to graze their cattle without friction. However, of late, with their population increasing, the two groups have often overstepped into each other’s grazing areas, leading to friction.

Last year also, after more than six persons were injured in a similar clash, the administration, in September 2021, set up a committee headed by Chief Conservator of Forests to give its recommendations for the issue.