Trip to meet Shepherds and Collect related Data about “Sheep”
Report
By : Pradeep
Date : 06-jan-2013
Covered Place : Somalapura Cross.
January is the season best known for harvesting and its harvesting festival observed in the mid jan believed to bring goodness to all. This harvesting season is also best for animal grazers. The beneficiaries are ofcourse the breeders, breed and the land owners who live the harvested land in the hands of the animal grazers for some period to make their soil fertile for the next season of bowing. Since the sheep manures are considered to be the best and shepherds are already onto the move with their sheep, one of our co-supporter/advisor of Socionity project Mr. T.B.Dinesh on his visit to Hampi had located more than 50 shepherds around the place. Guessing that probably there could be some Belgaum shepherds to be found around Hampi and as a part of Socionity project, I was set to move to Hampi.
My Early preparations:
Played with the Socionity tracking app "Pugmarks", collecting some local data around my place in B'lore. Read previous docs on november 2012 trip to Belguam and wrote down some tips and points which could help me. Then, Collected questionnaires and phone no. of Vajir from Shalini and took some advice from Dinesh. Finally packed everything along with the mobile phone and the laptop.
6th Jan 2013:
After a long sleepy night I reached Hospet around 7a.m. Hampi is around 12km from Hospet. As soon as I got down I ranged up Vajir to know what time I can come to his place and the proper address. But I couldn't reach him untill 11 in the morning. His number was not reachable. Meanwhile I moved to a known Professor's house in Kamalapura, Hospet to freshen up myself and did little chit chat with him. Then gracefully around 11 o'clock Vajir number was reachable. He asked me come to Somalapura cross. To reach Somalapura cross, I had to first reach Kampli which is 18kms from Kamalapura. Later to Somalapura cross which is 16kms from Kampli. When I got down, my clock showed 1 o'clock, then I called up Vajir. His tent was 1km away Somalapura cross. He asked me to walk towards Bellary road. I started tracking from the Somalapura cross till Vajir's tent. The uploaded tracks are there in the server by the name Somalapura (on the server the text message and the pictures are overlapped). I could see Vajir waiting for me outside his tent. He welcomed me and enquired about my journey.
When I was just looking around the tent , the lambs that were penned next to his tent attracted me. Some were already resting in the net, some were munching the leaves tied under the shade and some were wandering around the land grabbing some grasses. I clicked some photographs and a short video on the lamb that Vajir was holding. The video conversation is about the weight, age and the market price of the lamb. Others(sheep) were already taken across for grazing.
After a while, I had time to converse little with Vajir about his lifestyle and his hard times until lunch under his tent as an audio recording. Below I have listed some conversation with him.
i)How many sheep do you have?
200 sheep and 12 goats
ii) What are the main eatables for sheep and goats?
Sheep eat grasses like Alubu, Karike, Nett and Belekasa,
Goats eat bhari tappla, jaali tappla and bevina tappla.
iii) What type of sheep and goat breeds do you have?
Dekeney, Elalu, Mouli and Rambo rat
goat breed jamunapuri and ismanabadi.
iv) Where do you sell your sheep ?
Gangavathi
v)What is the cost of sheep and lamb?
Price of a month old lamb is around Rs. 1500-1700
Price of a 3 month old lamb is around Rs. 3500-4000
vi) What is the lifespan of a sheep?
Around 10-12 yrs.
vii) Did you sell your sheep meat anywhere?
No
viii)Did you make Handicrafts using sheep skin?
No
ix)What Shepherd expect from landowners ?
Depend on the number of sheep the owners decide the price. For around 200 sheep per day Rs.300 plus soem groceries if land owner wishes.
x)How many lambs can a sheep and goat deliver at a time?
sheep can deliver 1, goat can deliver 2 or 3.
xi)Which season do the sheep deliver the lamb?
April, May and June.
xii) Deliveries per year?
twice.
After the conversation we had a great lunch.Jolada Rotti, Ladies finger sabzi, Green chilli sabzi with rice.
Although, ealier Vajir had told us that he will take me on his bike for tracking but suddenly out of exigency he had given his bike to one of his relative on the day when I started. I spoke to Dinesh about the non availability of bike and he said he will try to arrange for a bike from his known friends around that area.
Since I had nothing to do for the day, I sat with Vajir talking about sheep types, their eatables, his struggle during various season,etc. This is addition to what Shalini had already collected.
30 varieties of sheep eatables:
Karike(Grass), Nett, Simpiga, Maarvaali, Ghanjini Grass, Arake kaddi, Nari Baala, Kadagolu Mandyaa, Kusuvalli, Raagihullu, Bench, Alabu, Gejje Alabu, Talagamore, Malagaasa, Kavadigasa, Budagasa, Chennangi Kasa, Tikkida Kasa, BeleKasa, Kattarigandhari Kasa, Biligandhari Kasa, Bili Kasa, Madugunake Kasa, Hanchibottu Kasa, Gantu Kasa, Kenne Kasa, Gooli Kasa, Hattarake Kasa, Kaadigirl Kasa
19 varieties of goat eatables:
Leaves (Tappla)
Jaali Tappla, Bevina Tappla, Banni Tappla, Hatti Tappla, Matti Tappla, Karihuli Tappla, Bilihuli Tappla, Baari Tappla, Matali Tappla, Alali Tappla, Aalada Tappla, Yekke Tappla, Usalakki Tappla, Rattavani Tappla,Ilaathi Tappla, Paragikaayi Tappla, Kavali Tappla, Bannara Tappla, Hunase Tappla
Creepers (Balligalu)
Amruita Balli, Byagadi Balli, Yaadi Balli, Mugadi Balli, Haali Balli, Yele Balli, Bhaavi Balli, Mekke Balli, Kaatikaayi Balli
26 varieties of Sheep breeds:
Bal Balakaal, Kempu Kiwi, Matti Kiwi, Kolamaalgun, Karikodu thondalya, Bal Basar, Matti Bal Balkaal Oobal, Musak Kolamaal Basar, Musak Kiwi, Shaambar Kodu Kiwi, Shaar Kiwi, Matti Bal Basar, Andgun, Matti Shhar, Butt Oobal Kolamaal Balakaal, Kari Matti Kiwi, Anachik Kodu Butt, Andshaar, Yenne Kadal Basar, Hund Kodu Balakaal, Matti Anchik Gun, Kodu Kolamaal Balakaal, Kiwi Kuri Murkaal Belkaal Oobal, Musak Sujigan Kodu, Kempu Kolamaal Gun, Hund Basaru Tagaru
Served by Vajir's wife, sipping the cup of the tea prepared using sheep milk, the discussion went further deeper, such as,
Diseases that sheep suffer from :
“PPR”->Black Blood Bleeding (Kari Raktha Srava), Cough, Cold.
“HS”->Swollen face. During this period sheep do not intake any food.
“Baayi Bege”->Tongue ulcer
“Dammi Roga”->Kind of cough
“AT”->Sheep mental distortion
“Meyali” -> Ulcer on the body
Difficulties that shepherds undergo at various season:
During Rainy:
* Sheep will not eat any food.
* Difficult to cook.
* They will not get wood for fire in rainy season.
* No proper shelter. Tents will become wet and food cannot be stored properly.
During Summer:
* Scarcity of food for the sheep.
* They should spend money to buy eatables for sheep.
* Water problem.
* Sheep usually fall sick. Mostly fever
* Shepherds has to travel long in search of food and water for the sheep.
During Winter:
* All the sheep come closer and stand in a group. Movement becomes slower.
* Suffer from diseases.
The day ended by thanking Vajir for his warm hospitatility and his co-oridination. And I told him that I'll come back to him after arranging a bike.
Issues and Feedback:
Getting a vehicle:
Tracking over the bike was the best option around that area and would have been more quickly. Since Vajir's bike wasn't available, arranging an another bike was difficult. Four wheelers are actually easier to rent. Tried to rent a bike from Hampi which are easily available for tourists but they refused to give us for the long distance, although Somalapura was just 35km from Hampi. And even since It was a festival time, we couldn't acquire any bike from the people in contact.
Pugmarks:
Tracking with pugmarks was absolutely fine. But viewing them on the server had difficulty. The images and text message got overlapped. And even images are need to be captured vertically. An horizantal image would not load on the server.