Tauseef Ahmad
Baramulla:- At the times when every person is using technology for small things, the peoples in the far flung village of Kashmir have managed to sustain themselves through their age-old practice of harnessing natural resources and earning their livelihood from it.
Kashmir valley is often called ‘Paradise on earth’, due to its breathtaking landscape, dense forest, snow covered mountains, streams and glaciers. The valley is known worldwide for its tradition, art and cuisine. With famous mouth watering dishes like Rogan josh, Kabab, Meetha keema, saffron and several others.
Sustaining livelihood through time honored milk practices
Located around 85 km away from the summer capital of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Dudran village is known for storing milk production for decades. The village has around 83 households who depend on natural resources from grazing cattles to earn their livelihood.
Surrounded by the forests, the villagers in Dudran live a simple and peaceful life in houses made of wood and mud.
“Dudran itself means the village of milk, every town here produces almost 30 liters of milk everyday. The villagers produce several products made with milk like curd, butter and cheese,” Abdul Aziz, 64, a local resident said.
Shunning modern refrigeration
Embarrassing the age-old practice adopted from their ancestors the villagers diligently store milk in a traditional refrigerator shunning modern gadgets like refrigerator and others.
The villagers use traditional cave-like structures covered with thick wooden fencing constructed near the natural springs under soil to keep milk fresh in summers and hot in winters.
The traditional refrigerators called ‘Doud Khot’ means place where milk has been saved and has been made away from the residential area near any natural spring where water drops flow continuously which according to the villagers helps them to keep their milk and other items fresh in both summers and winters.
Speaking with The Plate, Gh Hassan, 46, working as a milkman for the last 25 years said that the demand of milk and other products made from the milk by locals have huge demand in the nearby town area’s.
Hassan is the younger brother among his three brothers in his family who has been working as a milkman for the last three decades in his village and supplies it to the nearby markets. “Most of the villagers sell fifty percent of milk to him in the morning and store fifty for making curd, cheese and butter like products,”.
He added that they have learned this practice from their ancestors. “Our grandparents’ parents were doing this practice before us now we do,”.
Another local resident Gh Ahmad Khan, 55, who was on way to graze their cattles in a nearby forest said that every household earns their livelihood from cattles and natural resources they have.
“Our family sells 20-30 kg of curd milk everyday in the summer. We are happy with this practice which helps us to earn our livelihood easily. We feel proud when someone calls us ” shepherd ” or ” milkman,” he added.
Preserving and producing natural dairy delights.
Every morning after milking the cattles the villagers, mostly womens after selling half of the milk to the milkmans visiting the village. The local womens store it in a cave in steel or wooden utensils available in their homes to keep them fresh and for making the products from it.
“For making butter and curd, around two to three full pots of milk have been stored in the cave. After four days the it had been taken home where with the help of wooden after one hour the mill gets converted into
butter has been produced from the milk,” Taja Begum, 53, a middle aged woman said.
Dudran is also famous for its hospitality where mostly people live in joint families. The villagers also have a unique style of welcoming Guests. The villagers keep their tradition alive by welcoming Guests not with Coffee or tea in their homes but with a milk and a maize flour flat bread with a Sauce of leafy greens produced locally.
The process of converting milk into butter and curd is called Gurus in the local language.
She explained, the benefits of their Curd produced by the villagers used to beat heat in summers by the rural peoples are better than the modern day cold drinks available in markets.
“The villagers these days make butter which is in high demand as it has been used to beat cold. The products produced by us are healthy and natural without any mixture or any harmful substance as compared to the markets where milk powder has been used for making these products,”.
The cave-like structure according to the villagers is more helpful to him as compared to other modern gadgets like refrigerators as it helps them to keep milk cool in summers and hot in winters.
“The curd and butter produced by the Dudran villagers have a unique taste as it has been produced without harmful chemicals,” Mushtaq Khan, a regular buyer.
The locals in absence of modern day health care facilities use the home made products to treat several diseases.
“We use the water produced from making the butter to treat diarrhea and digestion like diseases. My father used to give it to me, I follow the same and give it to my childrens whenever they have the stomach issue” Shabir Ahmad, 47, a father of four childs said it to me.
Speaking with the reporter, the doctor posted in a nearby hospital said that the salt water produced from the butter making process is probiotic which helps in digestion and other stomach issues.
Preserving natural resources
“We rely on natural resources here. It is our duty to keep them clean. If we throw garbage in our natural streams our future generation will suffer, it is our duty to keep them clean,” a group of womens told The Plate who were collecting garbage in the local stream when they were on their way back home after storing milk.
Gh Rasool, 78, who runs a ‘Aab Gratt’ traditional flour mill which works on the water for churning the maize and rice in Atta in the village said that the natural resources are a blessing God gifted to him and they will preserve it till their last breath. “We are happy to live a simple life here, with every sunrise and sunset the silence and peace and natural beauty is more worthy than the modern houses’ and the polluted cities,”.
“We use traditional DAAN to prepare food, in times when people use the latest technology to cook, we found solace in preparing the food on it as it becomes more tasty than on traditional gadgets,” said Aasha Begum, a local woman.
He also said that the people in Dudran still prefer to construct wooden and mud houses as it helps us to fight with the freezing cold in harsh winters when the snowfall was three to four feets in our village.
“We collect dried wood from nearby forests for our homes, fencing and for use of our Bukhari, a wood burning stove which helps us to fight with the cold in winters and is used in every home,” Saleema Begum, 36, a local woman said.
With commitment to tradition, the villagers sustain themselves through age old practices, from storing milk in natural refrigerators to crafting dairy delights. The simple sustainable existence embodies a harmonious relationship with nature.
The villagers take pride in their unique products, emphasizing their health benefits over commercial alternatives.
