ABSTRACT
The emergence of the Bakkarwal in Jammu and Kashmir as a distinct community, in its present form, can be traced back to the early years of this century. The exact locations of the pastoral spaces of the Bakkarwal in summer and winter have undergone major shifts in the last fifty years. Bakkarwal spatial resources may be classified in one of the two broad categories of 'directly productive' and 'indirectly productive' space, and these may at times overlap. Most of the summer pasture used nowadays by the majority of Bakkarwal is considered by them as an area to which only they have rights of access. The strategies of lending and leasing pastures serve not only to obtain access, they also help the owner in times of temporary hardship to maintain it, and as with all hardships, they both involve a certain degree of risk.
