Vol. 6 · No. 2 · 2002

Sahibzada Irfanullah

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For the past several decades forests in the entire Hindu Kush-Himalaya belt are under severe threat of overexploitation. The natural coniferous forests of the Hilkot watershed in the Pakistani Hindu Kush-Himalayas are no exception, and the impact of this threat can be felt in various ways. A complex relationship exists, here as elsewhere, between the forest and the user communities - notably their economies. The ever-increasing population of mountain communities, particularly those who are directly dependent on the forests, along with their growing needs for timber, firewood and fodder, have led to immense pressure on forests (Asghar 1984: 22-23). The user communities in Hilkot consist of various ethnic groups, most of which are hierarchically structured - structures which tend to hinder in finding solutions to the problems of deforestation. One of these communities is that of the Gujars, and this paper deals briefly with the conflicts that arise in the context of their use of the forest.