Water bottles slung on their shoulders and sticks in hand, Krishan Meghwar and Ramzan Otho plod along the outskirts of Chelhar, a small town 30 km north-east of Mithi, in search of water and fodder for their accompanying cattle. There is hardly any vegetation on the roadside except some grass that has sprouted up after a little rain, where occasionally cows stop to graze.

“The clouds didn’t rain this year and gave us the black drought,” says Meghwar. “It’s not very strange because this occurs every two years.” The two men were headed to the Sukkur Barrage in Sindh, along with hundreds of their livestock. “We have been in search of fodder for the past two weeks. If it does not rain, we will travel towards Mirpurkhas.”

They spend the night at the nearest village where villagers provided them with charpoys and bedding but they cook their own meal. The villagers also allow them to fetch water if there is a well dug for cows. In return for shelter, the nomads provide water to the livestock of their host family. This give and take is expected wherever they make stops throughout their journey.

Lack of rain in Thar forces the locals to become nomads and move to barrage areas in search of food, fodder and work

There is not enough fodder to sustain the cattle for long and it may end in the next couple of weeks.

Chelhar is the only part of Thar desert which received a small spell of rainfall at the end of July this year, which turned the desert a bit green, producing some fodder for the livestock. However, the rain was insufficient to sow seeds for the cultivation of crops.

As the rest of the desert didn’t receive any rain, the region was hit with a severe drought which may result in fatalities for the cattle and malnutrition for women, children and the elderly in Chelhar.

Meghwar and Otho had left their village Gorihar, in taluka Islamkot, and were on their way to Jamesabad, also known as Kot Ghulam Muhammad, in Mirpurkhas district. They will cover a distance of over 150 km on foot for the next three days and nights to reach Jamesabad.

“There are no water reservoirs on the way, except the Ranasar pond,” says one Thari. “We will have to fetch water from dug wells for our livestock till we reach Jamesabad, our final destination. It is a challenging task to manage such huge volumes of water, but we have to do so almost every year.”

If it rains, they plan to return with their livestock, but if the clouds don’t pour, they prefer to continue their journey to Jamesabad.

After leaving Chelhar, the best and shortest route to the barrage area is through Nabisar. On the way, one can see many migrating families along with their cattle.

Madho Bheel, a 45-year-old Thari, is travelling the same route with his family and cattle, stopping on the way at the shrine of Ahmed Shah Lakyari to pay respect and offer sacrifice.

“We will sacrifice a rooster or a goat at the shrine and pray for our safe journey, prosperity in the barrage area and for sufficient rain in Thar next year,” says Madho Bheel.

Bheel’s family hasn’t eaten mutton or chicken in the past couple of months, but they have saved a rooster to sacrifice at the shrine in the hope of prosperity and a safe journey ahead.

They have taken this journey six times over the last decade.

“Over the centuries, Tharis have faced drought every third year and one black drought every six years,” says Gotam Rathi, an elderly man of Thar. “Water can either save the Tharis or it can destroy them.” He explains that if Tharis got water at their doorstep they could find livelihood there and wouldn’t need to migrate. There are some places in Thar where solar power is available and water is obtained from tube wells for agriculture.

Three to four spells of rain after every 15-20 days are required, from June to August, for sowing seeds and harvesting crops. Inadequate rainfall means either they get less crop yield or face drought.

This year, it did not rain in any of the talukas of Tharparkar district — including Kaloi, Diplo, Mithi, Islamkot, Chacharo and Dahli. This is expected to lead to food and fodder shortage and the outbreak of diseases.

Fifteen families are migrating from the remote village of Man Bai Jo Tar situated in Chhachharo. On the way, Thari families pluck cotton in the village of Janu Chang, in Sanghar.

Forty-year-old Achar Bheel, who was plucking cotton in the field with his family members, said that they could not find any work in their village, neither did they have food or fodder. So they travelled by road to Sanghar, where they found some labour work in the cotton fields.

After staying for two months in Sanghar, they will move in November to other areas to cut sugar cane, and move from there again to find more work till next monsoon season starts.

Eight to nine months in the barrage areas will be spent as nomads. As they finish their jobs in one place, the Tharis move to other places, and so this continues until they find an alternate livelihood back home in Thar.

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 28th, 2018

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