Pastoralism and Wildlife Conservation in the Himalaya
By
Dr. Yash Veer Bhatnagar
Kiangs, the Tibetan wild asses, are a huge threat to pashmina production in Changthang. They are destroying pastures…”, a refrain by an animal husbandry official in Ladakh, came as a total surprise to my wildlife conservation sensibilities."
All that told is not Truth
Till then I had only known of narratives on how livestock are a threat to wildlife and I was quite astonished at this opposite view. I tried to probe further and was informed that “Kiangs have been increasing, and now there are thousands of kiang and they are eating up all the forage in the pastures of Changthang leaving little for the valuable pashmina goats…” This came as a surprise to me as the latest information I had from a scientific survey estimated barely 2000 kiang in close to 20,000 sq km of the rolling mountains and valleys of eastern Ladakh. With a 11 months gestation and a harsh environment, this species is unlikely to have anu kind of population explosion too. This was in the later 90s and about five years later I managed to conduct a survey of these areas with my good friend, the late Rinchen Wangchuk. We found that the kiang population was indeed barely 2000 and speaking with the nomadic herders, did record some who were unhappy with their ‘growing numbers’. Probing it further, however, we realized that the conflict seemed limited to the moist, productive meadows scattered along the Indus and lake basins and certainly wasn’t as widespread as was the impression given by the official. These moist meadows formed in specific places along the valley that were relatively stable but constituted not even one percent of the total area of Changthang. We observed that during their breeding season in August-September, kiangs congregate in large numbers in these meadows that offer good forage. Foals are born after a gestation of 11 months, and more breeding takes place. This was thus a crucial social and foraging habitat for the kiangs. But then this is also a critical place for nomads. They carefully preserve these small patches of meadows to graze their livestock in late winter, when they are at their weakest after a long winter eating only sparse, dry forage. If kiang mows down the forage in August, at the end of the growing season, little may be left for livestock in late winter … there was thus certainly some conflict, but it was surely not a widespread one but one limited to these moist meadows.
Complete Harmony or Deep Conflict, Neither !
During another trip, I had an incredible and humbling experience. The Hanle Valley in eastern Ladakh has the last good population of the Tibetan gazelle, a small lithe animal with large beautiful eyes. They need relatively nutritious forage and have a naturally patchy occurrence, but our study had shown that their population had decimated due to a combination of severe hunting till the 1980’s alongside steeply increasing livestock grazing. Here on the Kalaktartar plateau, I was looking out for them sitting on a crest overlooking the plateau. I saw this old nomad walk something like a km down from his ribo, his yak tent, to collect water from a spring that was nothing more than a trickle, and walk back up the slope. Later, he invited us for tea and I asked him why he hadn’t pitched his tent closer to the spring. He looked at me with surprise and asked me
Look down at the spring…You are here to study wildlife, don’t you see all these trails radiating out from that spring? They are made by these kiangs walking from far away for this water. If we pitch our tent near the spring, we will deny water to all these animals… Walking down to collect water is no problem for me, but denying water to these animals will be criminal…”
This was an undeniable eye-opener to me. I was amazed at this reaction. Even if there is a conflict, there is empathy too. The nomad – wildlife relationship was far more nuanced and not simply one of complete harmony or deep conflict, but somewhere in between.
Pastoralism in the Himalayas
The high altitudes in the Himalaya are spread across six states/Union Territories of India - Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. By high altitudes, I mean areas that are cold, windy, and relatively dry and where trees, as we know them elsewhere, don’t grow; or are very rare. These are also areas where cultivation is difficult as it is very cold till about April-May and then frosts sets in by late August, leaving a very short growing season when most crops can’t mature. But hardy herbs, grasses, and shrubs can. Close to 200,000 km2 of such areas exist in India and comprise of alpine meadows in the Greater Himalayan chain and different types of steppe vegetation in the Trans Himalaya, or areas in the rain-shadow of the Himalaya. The best land use for people here thus is herding livestock. The largely monsoon-free areas are good for livestock, particularly sheep and goats, given the highly nutritious forage in summer that can help them fatten up in an area where pests and diseases are also rarer. In winter livestock are carefully tended by people by stall feeding or some other form of forage supplementation, or many just descend into areas with more forage.
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These alpine areas are also expanses with an amazing assemblage of wild herbivores like the Himalayan ibex, musk deer, Himalayan tahr, bharal, Ladakh urial and chiru, that depend on the very same pastures. But unlike livestock, these ungulates need to take care of themselves in the harsh and long winters. If there is excessive livestock grazing in summer there is little left for them during the long winter. This leads to either population decimation or even local extinction.
Finding the Common Ground
Most herders, especially the transhumants, lead an arduous life and face numerous challenges due to changing land use and changing access to pastures. The educated youth often have aspirations of a much more secure, settled, and relaxed life and are looking for other alternatives. On the other hand, in some communities people are increasing livestock holding and employ needy labourers to assist with livestock herding, thus increasing numbers and the pressure on pastures. Wildlife has been in these areas since at least the Pleistocene Epoch, 2.5 million years ago, but humans have arrived just about 10,000 years ago. They have coexisted for long but with a fast-increasing human footprint and plummeting good areas for wildlife, they either perish or come into conflict with people.
It is time that both the herders and conservationists develop a common ground for sustainable use of these amazing incredible pastures for the common good of herders and wildlife. This is absolutely possible through innovative participatory planning and action at both, local and landscape levels.
Acknowledgement :Beginning a PhD study in Spiti was a dream come true. The stark moonscape that greeted me in the autumn of '91 left me dumbstruck. Soon, however, becoming breathless every few steps and slipping on the hard ground shattered the confidence of years of trekking and quickly gave way to despair. Zangpo and Chimed worked with me and patiently re-taught skills of traversing these heights with craft and enjoyment. I went on to spend three full winters, two with my city-bred wife from Hyderabad, with over 6-months of deep snow and temperatures touching - 40 degrees C, but their unwavering support made winters the best time of our lives. And the confidence of living in these parts readied me for a lifetime of work in the Himalaya. Over the last thirty years, numerous such people have helped me become a better conservationist and possibly, a better human.
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26-06-2020
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Yash Veer Bhatnagar, Ph.D.
Scientist | Conservationist |
He is Senior Scientist at Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, conducting research, conservation, and training across the Himalaya and Central Asia. He loves the Himalaya and his primary interests lie in the cold-arid landscapes of the Trans-Himalaya. His present research and conservation interests are in studying ungulate-habitat relationships, interactions with livestock, models for the coexistence of herders and wildlife, people-wildlife conflict resolution, alternative models for conservation (especially outside wildlife PAs), and participatory planning and action. |
Image Credits : Peter Van Geit (Gaddi of HP) , Sankar Sridhar (Bakerwals of J&K) Mahesh (Palsi) , Ritayan Mukherjee (Changpa of Hanle) , Tamding Chewang (Byanglung & Argali from North Sikkim), Rigzen Dorjay (Tibetan Gazelle), Yash Veer Bhatnagar (All others)
