Mapping Migratory Routes of Pastoralists across India
Documentation of a project to collect, visualize, and integrate data about seasonal migratory routes of pastoralist communities across India.
This project, documented on the Janastu Blog, set out to collect, visualise, and integrate data about the seasonal migratory routes of pastoralist communities across India. Pastoralism is a land-use practice that predates most administrative boundaries, yet pastoralists’ routes are increasingly disrupted by urbanisation, infrastructure projects, and policy changes.
The mapping work combined GIS tools with participatory research methods- an approach I also employed when mapping the history of cinema halls in Hyderabad- drawing on the knowledge of pastoralist communities themselves. The aim was not just to produce maps but to make visible a pattern of land use that is often invisible to planners- and to do so in a way that centres indigenous knowledge, much like the Climate Resource Center project did for agrarian practices in Bidar.