Photo: Anthra, Yakshi and Adivasi Aikya Vedika
l Whose access and whose benefit? The Nagoya Protocol and customary rights in India 61
Medicine used to prevent malaria.
and knowledge, through customary forms
of decision-making.
Defending rights to rear local sheep breeds
Since 1995, the NGO Anthra has been
working with pastoralist communities in
Medak district to document, record and
restore traditional knowledge of animal
health, animal breeds, fodder varieties and
management practices, and to defend grazing rights. Community shepherds, deeply
concerned about increasing sheep morbidity and mortality. analysed factors that
might be affecting sheep health and
concluded that the gradual dilution of the
pure Deccani breed (see Box 3) was
compromising the health of their animals,
leading to an explosion of diseases. This
realisation became a strong stimulus for
shepherds to revive the breed, resulting in
the emergence of community collectives
such as the Deccani Gorrela-Mekala
Pempaka Dharla Sangham and the Mahila
Bathukuderuvu Sangham.5 6 These organisations use community action to defend
their livelihoods, including their rights to
5 The Deccani Sheep and Goat Rearers Collective.
6 Women’s Life and Livelihood Collective.
Box 3: The Deccani sheep
The Deccani breed is spread across the four states of
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and parts
of northern Tamil Nadu located in the Deccan
plateau. The original custodians of the breed are the
Kuruma/Kuruba/Dhangar castes whose stories
narrate how the gods created the black wool sheep,
and assigned the community with the specific task of
its care (Murty and Sontheimer, 2004). Shepherds
selected the breed over the years for its tolerance to
drought, fodder and water shortages, capacity to
migrate long distances and ability to endure large
variations in diurnal temperatures. The wool has
traditionally been spun into yarn by women and
woven by men into blankets known as gongadi.
rear local breeds. The shepherds had
stopped rearing the pure Deccani due to a
combination of factors:
• structural adjustment policies which
sought to divert land from traditional to
industrial production;
• liberalisation of wool markets resulting in
dumping of cheap international wool; and
• programmes to replace the Deccani breed
with fast-growing sheep for meat.
These factors led to the near extinction
of traditional wool crafts (Anthra, 2009).