Almost one-sixth of the nearly 18,000 villages in Gujarat have no gauchar or pasture land, information provided by the state government in the assembly on Monday showed. Pasture land is where cattle and other livestock graze. Pasture lands have been shrinking due to rising urbanization.
There is no gauchar land in 2,754 villages in the state, data provided by the government in written responses to questions of different Congress MLAs showed. The number of villages without any gau-char land 2,625 in mid-2015.
"The Supreme Court has given clear directions that gauchar land cannot be sold. The state government, which doesn't let go of any opportunity when it comes to playing politics in the name of cow, should explain how gauchar land is becoming extinct in more and more villages," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi, said.
What is worrying is that districts, which are traditionally dependent on agriculture and allied activities for livelihoods of a large population, are home to the highest number of villages without any gauchar land. Tribal dominated Chhota Udepur is home to 318 villages where there is no gauchar land, followed by Dangs with 310, and Mahisagar with 225.
Valsad with 216 gauchar-less villages, Narmada (204), Banaskantha (197), Sabarkantha (182), Panchmahals (163), and Dahod (120) are some of the other districts with a large number of villages without any pasture land.
Ahd home to 74 such villages
With five such villages, Surendranagar is home to the lowest number of villages without any pasture land. It is followed by Botad and Mehsana, which have six such villages each, Gir Somnath and Devbhumi Dwarka with eight each, and Jamnagar, Patan and Porbandar districts with nine each. The government, however, said that there was no gauchar land in many of the villages since beginning.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Gauchar land")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}