The Society for the Promotion of Himalayan Indigenous Activities (SOPHIA) is a non-profit organisation based in the state of Uttarakhand in India.
Since its founding, SOPHIA has particularly worked with the Muslim nomadic Van Gujjar community who dwell in the forest of the Western Himalayas and practice buffalo pastoralism.
The Van Gujjars have since the early 1990s been subject to politics of forest conservation where the construction of Protected Areas, nobably Rajaji National Park and Govind Wildlife Sanctuary, has led to governmental actions for their forced displacement.
The organisation was an offshoot of Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that behan working for the Van Gujjar community but increasingly had turned to other issues.
The programme was initiated to alleviate a set of economic difficulties emanating from the gradual transformation, beginning in the 1950s, of the milk-based economy of the Van Gujjars.
Prices have steadily stayed ahead of general Indian inflation and all Van Gujjars are today free from debt-induced constraints.
Many tribal community settlements are located on land owned by the Indian Forest Department which puts them under constant threats of eviction.