Reclaiming India's Forgotten Grazing Grounds for Mobile Herders

Operating out of New Delhi, Bhuj and Dehradun, the Centre for Pastoralism (CfP) advocates for India's mobile herding communities, who move cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels across forests, grasslands and farm fallows in seasonal migrations that have shaped the subcontinent's rangelands for centuries. Its Access to Forage initiative works to help pastoralists use provisions of India's Forest Rights Act to formally reclaim grazing grounds that authorities have historically closed to herders, while its Desi Oon and Milk Matters programs build markets for indigenous wool and pastoral dairy to keep herding livelihoods economically viable. CfP's research documents that India's roughly 145 million goats and 74 million sheep, largely raised by pastoralists, still supply the bulk of the country's carpet-grade wool. By strengthening the economic case for mobile grazing, CfP aims to keep rangelands under active pastoral management rather than losing them to conversion or fencing.