grant access to our animal genetic resources or associated traditional knowledge, we have the right to
negotiate a benefit sharing agreement that includes mutually agreed terms.
WE ARE BEING EXCLUDED FROM CUSTOMARY GRAZING AREAS WITHOUT
OUR PRIOR INFORMED CONSENT - AND BIODIVERSITY IS BEING LOST
Despite this incredible genetic diversity and associated traditional knowledge that we have developed,
we remain mainly landless people and are highly dependent on our customary grazing rights over forest
and communal lands. Traditionally we have grazed our animals in Rajasthan’s forests and in the gauchar
and oran over the monsoon (July-September). Our exclusion from the forests, and shrinkage of gauchar
and oran severely threatens our entire existence and the co-evolved ecological system of these
biodiversity rich areas that have been developed through generations of complex interplay between
livestock, livestock keepers and the local ecosystem.
A. Forests
We have customarily grazed our livestock on a
seasonal basis in Rajasthan’s forests for
centuries. The Kumbhalgah Wildlife Sanctuary
is a case in point. The Kumbhalgarh Wildlife
Sanctuary is a 562 square kilometre range of
reserved forest under the management of the
Rajasthan State Forest Department. We have
been historically provided with grazing permits
which have over the last few years been
revoked and all grazing in the forest has been
banned without due process by the Forest
Department. We were neither consulted about
the decision, nor compensated in any way.
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