DFG | CAK Human-Ecological Dynamics of Land-Use
in Chitral, Eastern Hindu Kush, Pakistan
The project has three main research goals, analyzing the human-ecological dynamics in terms of the distribution of vegetation, pastoral practices, and recent landscape transformation in Chitral. Chitral is the meeting ground of three major climatic, floristic, and ecological regions. The eastern Hindu Kush delimits the Irano-Turanian (winter rain), Sino-Himalayan (summer rain), and the Central Asiatic (permanently arid) regions. Flora and vegetation mirror the transitional status of the Chitral triangle. Arranged along prominent altitudinal belts, the vegetation of the eastern Hindukush displays complex regional and local patterns. The most prominent climate gradient of Chitral is a sharp decrease in precipitation from south to north. This is overlaid and modified by a general trend towards winter precipitation in the west and summer rain in the east. The vegetation of Chitral includes a fairly diverse array of formations ranging from various forest types to desert, along an altitudinal gradient covering more than 4000 m. Besides these prominent climatic gradients, properties, and distribution features of vegetation types have been modified, to a locally different extent, by human impact in the context of mixed mountain agriculture and forest exploitation (Vegetation Map in Nüsser & Dickorè 2002). Likewise, the pastoral migration patterns as strategies for utilizing the grazing resources at the marginal belts of human habitation in Chitral are examined. Beyond the common features of combined mountain agriculture, pastoral utilization strategies vary between different tributary valleys in the region. Although the influence of heterogeneous environmental settings needs to be considered, differences in resource utilization mainly stem from distinct settlement processes and territorial rights of access and utilization, which in turn evolved from ethnic and social segregation (Nüsser 1999, Nüsser et al. 2012). Furthermore, the project investigates cultural landscape transformation in Chitral. Comparisons of historical photographs and replicates serve to demonstrate the change and persistence of cultural landscape structures. Due to the general population growth, the development of the cultural landscape is characterized by recent village enlargements and corresponding extensions of cultivated areas while the individual field sizes decrease. The regional center of Chitral Town is characterized by a higher building density and expansion of urban structures (Nüsser 2001, Dittmann & Nüsser 2002).
Project Team:
Prof. Dr. Marcus Nüsser
(affiliation at that time: Department of Geography, University Bonn)
Duration & Funding:
1997 - 1998: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Priority Programme "Culture Area Karakorum" (CAK)
Publications
NÜSSER M, HOLDSCHLAG A, FAZLUR-RAHMAN (2012): Herding on High Grounds: Diversity and Typology of Pastoral Systems in the Eastern Hindu Kush (Chitral, Northwest Pakistan). In: KREUTZMANN H (ed.): Pastoral Practices in High Asia. Agency of 'Development' effected by Modernisation, Resettlement and Transformation. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York (= Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research): 31-51.
DITTMANN A, NÜSSER M (2002): Siedlungsentwicklung im östlichen Hindukusch: Das Beispiel Chitral Town (North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan). In: Erdkunde 56 (1): 60-72 & supplement (map)
NÜSSER M & DICKORÉ WB (2002): A Tangle in the Triangle: Vegetation Map of the Eastern Hindukush (Chitral, Northern Pakistan). In: Erdkunde 56 (1): 37-59.
NÜSSER M (2001): Understanding Cultural Landscape Transformation: A Re-Photographic Survey in Chitral, Eastern Hindukush, Pakistan. In: Landscape and Urban Planning 57 (3-4): 241-255
NÜSSER M (1999): Mobile Tierhaltung in Chitral: Hochweidenutzung und Existenzsicherung im pakistanischen Hindukusch. In: JANZEN, J. (ed.): Räumliche Mobilität und Existenzsicherung. Festschrift Fred Scholz. Berlin (= Abhandlungen - Anthropogeographie 60): 105-131.