By Amarjyoti Borah
LEH, India - For generations, the nomads of Jammu and Kashmir's high Leh desert have made a living herding sheep, goats and yak. But hundreds are now being forced to abandon their traditional way of life as wide variations in winter snowfall threaten their livestock.
Researchers in the region say climate change is alternately bringing unusually heavy snow that prevents livestock from reaching fodder and, more often, very little snow, which leads to drought and changes in traditional pastures.
"The grasses have started to die out due to less level of snowfall in the region. It has been a continuing phenomenon for a decade or so, and now it has become alarming," said Nisa Khatoon, a researcher with the World Wildlife Fund based at Leh.
Another problem is more frequent locust swarms destroying pastures. According to scientists at the Defense Institute of High Altitude Research, increasing attacks by locust swarms is the result of gradual warming of the region.
The Leh division of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council in 2008 carried out a survey that found that in the wake of locust attacks, a new reddish grass has replaced normal pastures.
"Animals do not eat this grass because it burns their mouth and this leads to a food crisis among the livestock," said Tsering Phuntsog, a district sheep husbandry officer posted at Leh.
The nomads in Changthang, a sub-division in the Leh district, have been among the worst affected. According to government assessment reports, over 124,530 sheep and goats and 10,391 large animals like yak are being directly affected by pasture scarcity in Changthang.
Typically, a nomad family is dependent on 90 to 100 animals. The family collects milk, butter, meat and wool from the animals, which they sell to earn a living.
According to studies carried out by Khatoon, most of the sub-district's nomads formerly migrated together as a single group but over the last decade have had to split into three sub-groups, each of which takes a different route.
"The group started to divide themselves after they had realized that the quantity of grass, on which the livestock used to live, was decreasing," Khatoon said. Now, she said, they are "exploring different routes."
But over the last five years, as many nomads have lost much of their livestock, some of them have also been forced to find new ways to make a living.
In Leh town, over 50 former nomad families are trying to earn a living by newer means.
"Some of them have set up small shops selling various items while most the women are working as daily wage labourers," Khatoon said.
The transition from a nomadic lifestyle to an often poor-paying life in town has not been easy for many of the former nomads.
"Some of us have started tea shops and shops selling various items," said Csawang Rigzin, who gave up his nomadic life three years ago. Now "we are not able to earn up to our expectation. We had high hopes when we came here but now we are shattered economically," he said.
"Many of the nomads sold off their livestock and went to the town to seek a better place but now they feel they are nowhere economically," said Rigzin Chondol of the Snow Leopard Conservancy, which is active in the area. "Earlier a nomad family used to earn a good amount of money, which often used to be 50,000 to 60,000 rupees ($1,100 to $1,300) a year but now they are not able to make savings."
In mid-2008, the Snow Leopard Conservancy, a local non-government group, surveyed nomads who had given up their migratory life and were trying to make a living in town, and concluded that their economic situation had worsened as a result.
"As nomads their expenses used to be very little. They used to consume meat and milk from their livestock, and used to get wool to make clothes from their sheep. Now they need to purchase every essential," Chondol said.
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