Snow snaps Gujjar lifeline: their 565 cattle

When a massive wall of snow enveloped this village, it took with it the Gujjar’s very lifeline — 565 cattle, sheep and goats. And ...

When a massive wall of snow enveloped this village, it took with it the Gujjar’s very lifeline — 565 cattle, sheep and goats. And five days after rescue operations began, there is little help for hundreds of animals trapped under mounds of snow. ‘‘There are no stretchers even for human beings,’’ a villager says. ‘‘Who has the time for cattle?’’

A cow, pulled out by a survivor after hours of digging, tried to run but collapsed. The Army had arranged buckets of water and food packets for survivors but with fodder buried, the cattle have nothing to eat. Cows lick the snow to quench their thirst.

‘‘Our cattle are our life. These cows, sheep and goats are our best friends in these mountains,’’ said Mohammad Shafi Chehchi, who lost 16 cattle when the snow tsunami struck last Saturday.

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Waltengo Nar is a village of Gujjar herdsmen. There are no vets around. The J&K Veterinary Doctors’ Association, ironically, ‘‘moved by the sad plight’’, raised a corpus for the ‘‘avalanche-affected people’’ and asked the vets to donate generously. A few lower-rung officials of the state’s Animal Husbandry department had come but they were only interested in the census of the dead. ‘‘We are collecting the details about the livestock that perished,’’ said livestock assistant Abdul Rashid Khan. ‘‘We are giving whatever medical aid we can provide to the injured animals.’’

‘‘Our clans have lived in these mountains for centuries. We are used to snow but we have never heard of such devastation,’’ said Bashir Ahmad, a teacher, who lost his home along with 22 family members and his cowshed with cattle. ‘‘I don’t know how such a huge wall of snow came down on us.’’

‘‘These mountains feed us…but we have massacred trees and turned them naked,’’ says an elderly Gujjar. ‘‘The mountains have taken their revenge.’’