CHITRAL: Keeping their tradition alive, the residents of many villages here have started moving to the high altitude areas for three summer months where they would graze their cattle and collect firewood to be used in winter.

Usually, when the villagers leave for the mountainous areas they hold a festival called Ghari Nisik, but this year it could not be organised owing to the fasting month of Ramazan.

Almost all the villages in upper Chitral have their designated highland pastures where they graze their livestock for three to four months of summer.

Haji Faraz from Gohkir village said these pastures were integral part of their lives as they offered abundant pastures for their livestock, whichwas the mainstay of their survival. He said the joyous stay in the mountains came to an end by the first week of June.

`As these pastures of fer a life full of activity during the summer season, almost every villager gets attracted to them, leaving their localities deserted,` he said. Paraz said during the months long stay, women prepared dairy products like cheese, butter and ghee both for their home use and selling in the market to supplement their incomes.

Sadbar Khan of Terich valley said the local culture was deeply connected with these pastures as both were inseparable despite modernity.

He said in the past, the people made makeshift shelters consisting of one or two rooms which were now being replaced by spacious homes with availability of maximum of facilities, including solar-poweredelectricity.

Thanks to mobile phone coverage these pastures have become well connected with the other areas, unlike the past when the herdsmen remained detached from rest of the world during their stay at highlands, he said, adding there was hardly a grazing field which was not connected by road.

`Modern facilities are narrowing the difference between the villages and the pastures, making the latter an invaluable part of the people,` he said.

Zar Wali of Shagrom village said his co-villagers derived more than 50 per cent of their sustenance from the pastures as they contained plenty of firewood. He said the people collected dried wood, fodder and beans from the pastures for use back home in the villages during the long harsh winter when life came to a standstill.