Shepherds moving out of meadows of Sonmarg due to growing tension

By Mudasir Ahmad Khan

Ganderbal

Shepherds with their horses, goats, sheep and families are coming out of Sonmarg valley as they are moving to Rajouri and Poonch areas back in this month of September much before they used to move out due to the growing tension and deployment of troops in all the areas of Ladakh region along with all high meadows.

In this month of September normally the nomads along with their families used to go for the grazing in the meadows of Sonmarg valley including in the area of Thajwas.

Nomad families were seen grazing their horses in the valleys of Sindh on Wednesday as they are preparing to move towards Srinagar and finally to the Jammu region prematurely as some of them said that they were told to vacate the high meadows due to the growing tension between the Indian and Chinese armies.

These shepherds told this reporter that their counter parts from the Kargil and Drass areas have also vacated the high meadows and have gone back to their respective villages.

With war clouds looming over the Ladakh region, it has impacted the families connected with this trade even in Leh and its other villages. During this summer due to the Chinese incursions most of the shepherds could not take their herds to the meadows close to LAC with China.