Home Preparation for National Talent Search Examination (NTSE)/ Olympiad
Chapter : 2. Pastoralists in the Modern World
C. When Pastures Dry :
(i) Traditionally pastoralists are nomadic; they move from place to place. This nomadism allows them to survive bad times and avoid crises. (ii) From the colonial period, the Maasai were bound down to a fixed area, prohibited from moving in search of pastures. They were cut off from the best grazing lands and forced to live within a semiarid tract prone to frequent droughts. Since they could not shift their cattle to places where pastures were available, large numbers of Maasai cattle died of starvation and disease in these years of drought. (iii) As the area of grazing lands shrank, the adverse effect of the droughts increased in intensity. The frequent bad years led to a steady decline of the animal stock of the pastoralists.