Multispecies Relationships in the Agro-pastoral Landscape of Sikkim, India

Ajay Immanuel Gonji

Introduction

In the summer of 2025, my colleagues and I conducted fieldwork in the Yuksam district of western Sikkim, India. Chiefly, the inhabitants of our study site were engaged in farming, agro-pastoralism, and eco-tourism. We asked our interviewees questions about the nature of their relationship with the land, its living beings, its seasons, and the changes they have observed in recent years. Using a multimethod approach – primarily involving semi-structured interviews and participant observation – our research explored multispecies relationships in the agro-pastoral landscape of western Sikkim.

In this blog article, I talk about two interviews that left a lasting impression on my understanding of human-nonhuman relations in the Sikkim Himalayas.

Encounters with Bears   

During the time of our visit, a village called Tingting was dealing with crop raids by Himalayan Black Bears. Our first meeting was with a 72-year-old farmer. He told us that he had been outside his house since 5 a.m., guarding his corn fields from the bears. About 2-3 nights before, a bear had visited, he said, and had eaten about 30 kilograms worth of corn in one night. In addition to bears, monkeys and porcupines also visit his field. Monkeys typically take a few corn cobs, whereas the presence of a porcupine is evident from its distinctive method of cutting the corn stalks close to the base. According to him, around four to five bears regularly visit his village. During the night, dogs serve as guards until humans take over in the morning.

Researchers during fieldwork in Sikkim’s Tingting village, discussing the issue of crop-raiding bears, monkeys, and porcupines.

When he arrives at 5 a.m., he first lights a fire to deter the bears, as they are known to dislike the smell of smoke. He also makes loud noises to signal his presence. He recounted an incident where he came face-to-face with a formidable bear weighing around 120 kilograms. Remaining calm, he slowly backed away and managed to escape unharmed. He also spoke of the bears' chalaki or intelligence, noting that as the season changes and the corn ripens in the higher-altitude villages, the bears move uphill as well. Despite the threat, he dismissed the idea of carrying a weapon for self-defence or harming the bear, which he regards as a sacred being. “The bear, and all animals, are manifestations of the Gods”, he says. The families in this area do not perform any other form of sacrifice, as they consider the corn eaten by bears to be their offering to the gods. He believes that his offerings to the gods have been accepted, as there have been no recent attacks on humans, goats, or cattle in the village. As far as the crops are concerned, he cultivates ginger and corn in his fields and avoids using urea, having tried it for two years in the past. He found that it made the crops tasteless and degraded the soil, making it hard and less fertile. Now, he uses cow and goat manure as natural fertilisers and reports that his crops no longer suffer from diseases.

The Monk at the Monastery

On one of the days, we decided to visit a village in Hungri that was known for its Monastery. Here we met with a 16-year-old Monk Scholar studying at the Monastery. Besides his duties as a Monk Scholar, we noticed that he takes care of the younger Monk scholars, cooks food for them and the guests at the homestay, helps in farming activities, and takes care of the few cows that belong to the owners of the homestay. In the evening, we got a chance to see the young Monk milking the cow. The cow is at ease around him, and to our surprise, even licks his clothes while he is busy at his job. He tolerates it for a while, but when the cow chews on his hoodie, he gets irritated and motions for the cow to stop. Later that evening, we sit with him for a casual chat. When we ask him if he thinks his cow loves him, he responds, “Yes, she gives us milk, she stays with us most of the time, and when we are not around, she frantically calls for us”.

The young monk and the cow share a unique and perceptible bond, showing how human–animal relationships can be intimate and affective.

He goes on to tell us that the cow's shelter was initially slightly away from the homestay; however, they had to bring the cow closer to the homestay because of a recent illness that she had suffered. He tells us that the cow had given birth to a calf six months ago, but the calf died of the same illness barely one week before our visit. He told us that when the calf died, the mother kept searching for her calf for several days, calling out at regular intervals. He said that the incident made him very sad, and he made sure he spent extra time with the mourning mother as a way of comforting her.

Conclusion

Examining people’s relationships with the mountains, their living beings, the seasons, and the changes observed in recent years, highlights how agro-pastoralists’ daily lives are deeply intertwined not only with their environment but also with an array of species.

In the case of the farmer dealing with crop raids by bears, we see how religious and cultural belief systems play a crucial role in shaping ethical orientations toward non-human others, fostering forms of tolerance, care, and coexistence that are deeply embedded in everyday practices and worldviews (Govindrajan, 2018). In the case of the Monk at the Monastery, we see how the relationships between humans and non-humans is not merely utilitarian but deeply intimate and affective, marked by kinship, care, and moral obligation (Govindrajan, 2018).

Our research revealed how multispecies relationships foreground interdependence, co-evolution, and mutual shaping between human and nonhuman actors (Haraway, 2008; Tsing, 2015). Therefore, understanding human-nonhuman-landscape entanglements calls for ethnographic approaches that frame pastoralism not as a solely human-centred activity, but as a relational process shaped by the continuous interactions between humans, animals, and environments, highlighted through diverse perspectives that reveal these complex interconnections (Bate, 2022).

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to my colleagues, Amshuman Dasarathy and Abhishek S, who accompanied me during our fieldwork in West Sikkim and contributed immensely to carrying out the research. My sincere thanks to our Field Assistant, Ramesh Chettri, whose invaluable support in translating from Nepali to Hindi greatly facilitated our interactions and understanding. I am especially thankful to our senior colleague, Dr. Rashmi Singh, for her constant guidance, encouragement, and support throughout the fieldwork.

References

• Bate, T. (2022). Beyond the human in pastoral ethnographies: A photographic essay. Zurich.

• Govindrajan, R. (2018). Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Haraway, D. J. (2008). When species meet. University of Minnesota Press.

• Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.