Trace the movement of pastoral nomads of India on the plateaus.

A. Dhangars were an important pastoral community of Maharashtra. Some were shepherds, blanket weavers while others were buffalo herders. The Dhangar shepherds stayed in the central plateau of Maharashtra during the monsoon.

B. Only dry crops like bajra could be sown here. In the monsoon this tract became a vast grazing ground for the Dhangar flocks. By October they move to Konkan. This was a flourishing agricultural tract with high rainfall and rich soil. Here the shepherds were welcomed by Konkani peasants.

C. Dhangar flocks manured the fields
and fed on the stubble to make the soil fertile and ready for rabi crops after the harvest of kharif crops.. With the onset of the monsoon the Dhangars left the Konkan and the coastal areas with their flocks and returned to their settlements on the dry plateau. The sheep could not tolerate the wet monsoon conditions.

D. In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh the Gollas herded cattle. The Kurumas and Kurubas reared sheep and goats and sold woven blankets.

E. Unlike the mountain pastoralists, it was not the cold and the snow that defined the seasonal rhythms of their movement: rather it was the alternation of the monsoon and dry season that determined their movement.