A model of sustainable living

Tosamaidan, a high-altitude pastureland in Kashmir’s Budgam district that was until recently the site of a firing range of the Indian Army and a virtual death trap for civilians, is today a symbol of community-driven sustainable living.

 

The Sukhnag river snakes through the panoramic Tosamaidan landscape.

Flocks of sheep graze in the grassland.

The huts of pastoralists.

Bakerwal pastoralists moving into Tosamaidan.

Tosamaidan Bachao Front members in the high-altitude landscape.

Members of the TBF and the School for Rural Development and Environment undertake ecological restoration .

Ramiz Bashir in the meadow where he lost his brother Wajid to an explosion.

Mohammad ('Master') Maqbool and Shaikh Ghulam Rasool.

Nazir Lone (‘RTI Nazir’)

Zainab bi lost her husband to a stray shell explosion.

A hillside near Tosamaidan deforested by the Indian Army.

Youths of the TBF at a get-together.

A Bakerwal boy herding sheep.

An upland buzzard in flight.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, passed by Parliament, received the President’s assent on August 9, 2019. It reconstitutes the State into the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir, and takes effect on October 31, 2019.

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At the entrance to Tosamaidan, in Budgam district of Kashmir.