The dhangars, a shepherd community scattered over a few villages in the heartland of western Maharashtra in Phaltan taluka of Satara district, are riding a social and economic change—on tractors.

The dhangars, traditional nomads who spend eight months every year on the move in search of grazing pastures for their sheep, are now selling their sheep to buy tractors. They have been seeing an excellent economic opportunity in hiring out their tractors to level and plough land in far-off Vidarbha and Marathwada on one side and the plains of Konkan on the other. And the idea seems to have clicked.

The classic example is Mirde village in Phaltan, where the lives of about 1,300 shepherds living in about four settlements or wastis have changed for the better.

The tractor revolution has brought in a clutch of tractor companies—Mahindra, John Deere, Swaraj Mazda, New Holland Ford, Escort—who have started their distribution units in Phaltan. They all cater to Mirde and the nearby villages of Barad and Jawali. But it is Mirde and its enterprising shepherds who are leading this rush of new generation customers for these tractor companies.

For several generations, the dhangars of Mirde have followed an eight-month-long migration pattern every year, during which they would cover not less than around 300 km on foot. Everyone moves—women, children and livestock. They would stay in their village only for the remaining four months, hardly enough to cultivate their land. The only time they saw a tractor was when some rich farmer from outside the village would drive up to buy sheep manure.

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