Adapting to climate change: Traditional coping mechanism followed by the <i>Brokpa </i>pastoral nomads of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Transhumance system of livelihood of the <i>Brokpa</i> pastoral nomads inhabiting in the yak tracts of Arunachal Pradesh with special emphasis on climate change adaptation was assessed in the present study. A representative sample of the 240 <i>Brokpa</i> pastoral nomads from all the yak rearing tracts of Arunachal Pradesh was selected randomly. The <i>Brokpa</i> pastoral nomads mainly depend upon livestock, like yak, yak-cattle hybrid etc, rearing for their livelihood. They perceived that season cycle has been changed in lower and mid altitude. They also perceived that onset of summer is getting started 1-2 month(s) earlier than before and also extended by 2-3 months. Therefore, <i>Brokpa </i>pastoral nomads of Arunachal Pradesh have expanded their migration duration by 2-3 months in searching of congenial environment for their livestock specially yak and yak-cattle hybrid. They adopted 10 coping mechanisms to cope up with negative impact of climate change. Among the coping mechanisms, ‘duration of migration has expanded by 2-3 months’ and ‘change in pasture utilization practice’ were found to be mostly adopted.