Geetanjali Krishna / New Delhi April 04, 2009, 0:06 IST

Pune, November 14 The National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes set up by the Union Government has recommended Special Socio-economic Settlements Zones (SSZ) for nomadic tribes similar to the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) for the industry.

The Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, an organisation working for tribes and nomadic communities, has launched a fourfold programme to spread awareness among these groups regarding deadly diseases and sexually transmitted infections.

Though the tribal Gujjars constitute 20 to 25 per cent population of the state, they have negligible access to modern health-care facilities, said Dr Javaid Rahi, national secretary of the Tribal Foundation.

Jammu and Kash mir is a confluence of diverse cultures, religious and ethnic groups; a place where rich and rare tapestry of civilisations have been woven over centuries. One of its distinct communities is of semi-nomadic Gujjars and Bakarwals who always clung to their tradition that distinguishes them from rest of the population giving them the title - simple children of nature. The Gujjars and the Bakarwals move from lowland to upland pastures with their herds of cattle, sheep and goats with the changing season.

Authorities in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast have appealed for international aid following the destruction of thousands of hectares of pasture and farmland by a locust infestation.

"We issued an appeal for help on September 23; Puntland alone cannot deal with this,' Hassan Arab, the deputy minister of rangeland and forestry, told the un's Integrated Regional Information Networks. "This time the swarms are bigger and more destructive than the ones we had in June. They have also spread to a wider area,' he said.

in the first week of May, 200-odd Van Gujjar families started moving towards their summer homes in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand. They had been stranded around Vikasnagar near Dehradun before a

The decision by Jammu and Kashmir's Leh district to declare the Changthang region a highaltitude wildlife sanctuary has put Ladakh's Changpa nomads in a fix. The nomads have, for long, been using