Towards Human-Wildlife Coexistence in the High Himalayas: Can Reducing Disease in Pastoral Herds Translate to Healthy Wildlife Populations?
By
Munib Khanyari
On the Trails of Kinnauras
In the early twilight hours, six herders and I emerge from our dhera, a circular arrangement of stones covered with a sheet of tarpaulin. The moon was bright and the clouds were fleeting about. The wind was frigid (even in July), and we have a 5,000 m mountain pass to climb, three glaciers, and many icy slopes to traverse. We weren’t alone; we had with us nearly 1,300 sheep and goats, 6 donkeys, and over 200 kg in food and equipment to carry. We were on a journey, walking together from the foothills of the Himalayas to the heights of the Trans-Himalayas. An annual migration is undertaken by livestock herders known as the Kinnauras in the region each summer. This movement helps them evade the monsoon in the lower reaches, and take advantage of the short-lived nutrient burst of the higher elevations during this time of year. It is a treacherous climb on any terrain, but more so in these mountains, the last remaining home of ‘monarchs’ like the ibex (Capra sibirica), species that are food for rare predators like snow leopards (Panthera uncia). By day 10 of our migration, we have already walked over 200 km, sleeping below rocks, and herding through hail, rain, and snow.
There are no Sundays! Losing sight of livestock could be devastating,
a predator may be lurking around any corner.
a predator may be lurking around any corner.
Conservation Vs Livelihood
It is rather common to read about the negative ways in which livestock herding impacts this landscape and its wild species: The sheep and goat consume the grass that the wild herbivores need and transmit diseases to their wild counterparts. These are a few of the issues that get wildlife conservationists up in arms.
Some go as far as to call for a ban on herding.
But what about the herders?
But what about the herders?
Across the world, near 725 million living on less than $2USD/per day, depend on livestock for their livelihoods. Surely, it is criminal to marginalize an already largely marginalized community that makes an immense effort to survive and sustains so much risk to rear livestock. For them, livestock is not only financial insurance, but also an investment – something they can sell to attend to their daily needs, or in times of crisis. A herder’s life is hard, your investment might fall off the cliff, or your own body might be unwilling to carry on but livelihoods are hard to come by in the mountains, and many have no alternative.
I heard Ashok ji, one of the Kinnaura herders once say:
Yes, there is limited forage for our livestock and wildlife, up in the high mountains - but we have both our livestock and our families to feed. We are not here to harm any wildlife, this is just our life…”
Finding the Common Ground
To make a positive difference for people and wildlife, it is first important to understand the value of livestock rearing to local communities, and then think critically about how ways to enable human-wildlife coexistence - finding a common ground between their interests and wildlife conservation to build partnerships. Disease transmission between livestock and wild herbivores is one such area as it can impact both the herder’s income and wildlife conservation. Herders pointed to the presence of various diseases in livestock - an example being the Foot and Mouth Disease which is caused by a virus- that transmits between livestock and wildlife. However, there are other pathogens, who impact is far less clinically obvious, but harmful nonetheless. For instance, parasites such as gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs), i.e. worms in the stomach are known to impact milk production, growth, fertility rates, and immunity levels, and yet, it is a seldom studied topic. These easily transmit from livestock to wild ungulates. With the changes in climate and the unprecedented changes that come with it, this becomes especially important - warmer and wetter conditions favor GINs presence and reproduction. Herders do use some plant preparations to treat these GINs but with rapidly changing climate, many of these plants are fast disappearing, leaving livestock defenceless.
Consequently, the Nature Conservation Foundation’s High Altitude team has been engaging with resource-poor livestock herders in various sites in the Indian trans-Himalayas. By living and herding with them, understanding the health issues faced by their livestock, and the potential of disease transmission between domestic and wild herbivores, we can co-develop interventions that align livestock health with wildlife conservation. For example, an intervention could be the timely application of anti-parasitic drugs to affected livestock (rather than the entire herd). This reduces the cost of treatment and can develop resilience rather than resistance.
People may argue that improving livestock and wild herbivore health, can facilitate coexistence with regards to disease transmission. Nonetheless, this can increase other conservation issues such as resource competition for instance. It would be naïve to disagree with that, but conservation was never a linear equation with a “one-fits-all” solution. We should strive to engage with multi-pronged complementary interventions.
People may argue that improving livestock and wild herbivore health, can facilitate coexistence with regards to disease transmission. Nonetheless, this can increase other conservation issues such as resource competition for instance. It would be naïve to disagree with that, but conservation was never a linear equation with a “one-fits-all” solution. We should strive to engage with multi-pronged complementary interventions.
As we finally crossed the pass, carefully placing one step in front of the other, my mind was very far from any conservation action. We all hoped to reach the camp safely before the end of the day. Surely we cannot ignore that there are forces strong enough to drive a human being to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, trudge through knee-deep snow and hack footholds in the ice, with thousands of livestock in tow.
Simply put, the world is a better place when approached with an attitude of inclusion. And, what we can do to enable this?
Acknowledgment: This work would not have been possible without the amazing company, hospitality, and knowledge of the Kinnaura herders from Rupi Village in Himachal Pradesh that I shared these journeys with. Even though the hardships and difficulties, they and their livestock traverse these mountains with such grace and I hope rather than being alienated, they are made allies in conserving the biodiversity of the Trans-Himalayas.
29/05/2021
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Munib Khanyari | PhD Student
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Munib is a Ph.D. student at the University of Bristol and Oxford University in the UK. He collaborates with Nature Conservation Foundation's High Altitude Program to study disease transmission between wildlife and livestock in the Trans-Himalayas. |