Van Gujjar people

The Van Gujjars ("forest Gujjars") are an Van Gujjari-speaking nomadic Muslim ethnic group and a sub-tribe of the larger Gujjar community. They are traditionally herders and live mainly in the Shivalik Hills region of Uttarakhand. They follow Islam and are traditionally a pastoral semi-nomadic community, known for practising transhumance while having their own ethnic clans. Van Gujjars migrate with herds of semi-wild water buffaloes to the Shivalik Hills at the foot of the Himalayas in winter and migrate to the alpine pastures higher up the Himalayas in summer. Van Gujjars are known to be lactovegetarians due to sole dependence on animal-herding and milk delivery as a livelihood opportunity.