Srinagar, July 4 -- Kashmir's summer meadows are thinning. The grass is fading, the ground is hardening, and the ancient pastures that once fed flocks and shaped the lives of Gujjars, Bakarwals, and Chopans are fast disappearing.

Jammu and Kashmir holds nearly 11 million livestock. Around five million of them move across the land with the seasons.

Every year, about three million sheep and goats are herded from the winter plains of Jammu to the high-altitude grasslands of Tosamaidan, Bangus, Sonamarg, and Lidderwat.

For almost 600,000 people, this journey is not a choice. It is survival.

But the land is showing signs of collapse.

Government data reveals that Jammu and Kashmir's pasture land covers around 1.3 lakh hectares.

Of this, n...