As the summer sun warms up the slopes and valleys of Kashmir, one would also see the Bakkarwalas, or the Gujjar community that makes a living by rearing sheep, moving to meadows in the higher reaches of the mountains in Kashmir with their sheep flock.

On the way from Srinagar to Kargil, during the summer months, one would invariably come across flocks of sheep and their custodians, the Bakkarwalas; sometimes resting and at other times crossing the roads without hindering the traffic. All of a sudden one would also lose trace of them, only to find them on high mountain slopes, with the sheep looking motionless like cotton balls.