Srinagar: The creation of new districts in Ladakh has sparked concerns of dispossession of livelihood resources for pastoral people who have been grazing their herds in the Himalayan region for centuries.
Environmentalists are also concerned that the new districts will expand human footprint, increase unsustainable tourism activities and threaten the fragile ecosystem of Ladakh which is at the forefront of global warming and climate change.
The decision comes four years after the 2020 Galwan crisis in which 20 Indian and some Chinese soldiers were killed in a gruelling and brutal hand-to-hand combat, and the new districts will likely facilitate the expansion of military footprint in the strategic region bordering China.
In a statement on August 29, Union home minister Amit Shah said that the Union government had given “in-principle approval” for the creation of five new districts of Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra and Changthang in Ladakh.
Earlier, there were only two districts in Ladakh – Kargil and Leh.
According to an official, a de-notification exercise was started in Ladakh in 2022 to “rationalise” the boundaries of Karakoram and Changthang wildlife sanctuaries which are spread over about 9,000 square kilometres and are home to some of the most exotic species of wildlife.
The Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 4.0
A wildlife conservator who has worked in Ladakh said that the size of the sanctuaries was likely to be reduced with Zanskar, Drass, Sham and Nubra districts to be carved out of the existing Kargil district with the addition of some parts of Karakoram wildlife sanctuary, one of the rare places in India with a migratory population of Tibetan Antelope (Chiru).
He said that Changthang district would be carved out of Changthang wildlife sanctuary, which is another critical reserve at 4,500 metres for the threatened Pallas’s cat and snow leopard along with Tibetan sand fox and black-necked crane.
In 2022, the Union government had asked the Wildlife Institute of India to identify areas of “high conservation value” for “rationalising” the boundaries of the two sanctuaries in Ladakh, reportedly on an internal recommendation after the Galwan episode.
“The survey is ready for over a year now,” a source said, adding that the new boundaries are likely to be announced “very soon” and that some parts of Changthang could undergo area built up in coming years.
“The administration will provide basic necessities like electricity, water and phone connection, etc. for the residents to compete with what China is doing on the other side of Line of Actual Control,” the source said.
According to officials, the home ministry has asked the Ladakh administration to set up a committee for chalking out the contours and administrative boundaries of the five new districts by November this year.
“After receiving the report of the said committee, the Union Territory of Ladakh will send the final proposal regarding the creation of new districts on the basis of this report to the Home Ministry for further action,” home minister Shah said, per the statement.
He added: “This important decision of MHA will prove to be very useful in the all-round development of Ladakh. The Narendra Modi government at the Centre is fully committed to creating immense possibilities for the people of Ladakh.”
‘Dilution of autonomy’
When Ladakh was part of J&K, it was governed by Leh and Kargil autonomous hill councils comprising elected councillors who had a fixed term with extraordinary powers to approve or reject any project that entailed land transfer. Jobs were also reserved for locals.
However, in the aftermath of Galwan and post 2019, the power of local authorities has started to fade as new central laws became applicable to the union territory, prompting bouts of protests which have become a source of persistent embarrassment for the BJP-led union government.
Prominent activist Sajjad Kargili feels that the Union government was “testing the waters” while linking the creation of the new districts to the dilution of the demand for statehood and Sixth Schedule, which has gained momentum in Ladakh in the aftermath of its separation from J&K.
“The idea that becoming a Union Territory would fulfil public aspirations has miserably failed in Ladakh due to which the immediate celebrations after 2019 have turned into mourning now. The new industrial policy is aiming to strip the powers of hill councils and the new districts will add another layer of bureaucratic control over Ladakh,” Kargili said.
The new industrial policy proposes to delegate the land transfer power, which is vested with the democratically-elected hill councils, to the administration handpicked by the Union government since 2019 when Ladakh was downgraded into a Union Territory without legislature. After public outrage, the policy has been reportedly put on hold.
With the recent Chinese incursions shrinking Ladakh’s sparse pastures which sustain the nomadic tribals, experts fear that the new districts could lead to further encroachment of the grazing lands that will also cast a long shadow on the wildlife in Ladakh.
In a video frame captured in mid-June 2020 and published by China Central Television, the image depicts a confrontation in the Galwan Valley between Chinese soldiers in the foreground and their Indian counterparts in the background. Source: CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION
“Unlike in plains where resources are concentrated, wild animals have to cover a lot of ground for food in Ladakh. If they lose grazing pastures, that is something people need to worry about,” said Tsewang Namgail, a prominent conservationist from Ladakh.
He said that there was a lot of uncertainty in Ladakh about the Centre’s announcement of new districts while emphasising on the importance of democratic policymaking. “The government should pursue the policy of ‘development for necessity’ not ‘development for vanity’, when it comes to the eco-sensitive regions like Ladakh,’ Namgail, who heads the Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust, said.
However, Ishey Spalzang, who represents Nyoma constituency in Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council – Leh, however, welcomed the proposal, saying that the new districts would bring governance and civic amenities closer to the people living in one of the world’s sparsely populated regions.
“People are scattered and cut off in far off regions which affects the delivery of basic amenities such as healthcare and education. Having more districts will end these problems to some extent and also lead to creation of more opportunities and jobs for locals,” he said.
A recent study conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, also concluded that the locals in Ladakh favoured redrawing the administrative boundaries because of lack of basic amenities such as roads, tap water and sewage system, the source said.
The Wildlife Protection Act makes it mandatory for people living in the sanctuaries to obtain permission from the wildlife department for small issues such as home repairs, collecting minor produce, etc.
However, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) that applies to traditional residents of all forests as well as wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the country removes such restrictions by recognising several rights of traditional dwellers, including the right to graze their herds, collect minor produce, access water sources and continue living in these areas.
A Changpa woman. Photo: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0
The FRA could ensure much greater security for the lives and livelihoods of the Changpas and other residents of Changthang, but the Act has not been implemented properly in the Ladakh, according to a forest rights researcher who has been tracking the issue.
“There is a common misconception that because it is classified as a ‘cold desert’, Changthang will not come under the ambit of the FRA. But the law applies to all wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, protected forests etc. per the definition laid down in Section 2(d) of the Act,” the researcher said.
Konchak Stanzin, councillor of Chusul in Leh, said that the creation of new districts was an old demand of the people of Ladakh and the announcement has been welcomed by people regardless of their political affiliation.
“Our basic requests such as setting up a mobile tower used to get delayed for years. With new districts, the power dynamics will change in Ladakh but there will be lots of issues and deliberations,” he said.
Strategic change?
A local, however, said that most of the traditional dwellers such as Changpas who rear herds of pashmina goats, sheep, yaks and horses in the landlocked region between Chushul and Hanle in the strategic Eastern Ladakh on the border with China, don’t have ownership papers to prove that their pastures belong to them.
“This will make it easier for the government to take over land which has been providing livelihood for the Changpas and other locals for centuries,” he said, adding that many traditional herders have given up their ancestral trade and are shifting to tourism-related activities such as turning their homes into home-stays for tourists.
Muzamil Rashid, a Ladakhi conservationist who in 2013 co-founded Roots Ladakh, a non-profit which works in the areas of heritage and environment, however, said that there was a lot of uncertainty about the proposal of new districts.
“We are not sure how this decision is going to play out. There is a lot of ambiguity about how powerful the autonomous councils will remain once the new districts come into existence,” Rashid said.
Environmentalists believe that the increasing human footprint, unsustainable tourism and rapid urbanisation will further deteriorate the ecosystems in the Himalayas. In recent years, Ladakh has witnessed an alarming jump in the number of tourists which has grown to more than ten times the region’s population, triggering a pollution problem that has brought more predators in the ecosystem who pose a grave threat to the wildlife.
Also, many tourists are rash bikers and SUV owners who litter the landscape and ride roughshod over Ladakh’s sparse meadows and water bodies, bringing new challenges to the sensitive Himalayan ecosystems.
“Ladakh is already having a tourism problem and the latest decision (of creating more districts) will only exacerbate it,” an environmentalist said, wishing to remain anonymous, while adding that unsustainable tourism will wreak havoc on Ladakh’s fragile environment.
The source quoted above said that the de-notification exercise was being done to benefit the military and expand bureaucratic control while ignoring the need for preserving the ecological balance of Ladakh.
“But the gun is being fired from the shoulders of the locals by saying that they are in favour of this decision and it will benefit them,” he added.
With the new industrial policy on hold amid a simmering political crisis, the cold desert region is likely to generate a lot of heat in coming months and years.
Criticising the new industrial policy, Nyoma councillor Spalzang said: “The Leh council has taken it up with the administration. 70 percent land allotment should be reserved for the councils while the remaining 30 percent can be used for industrial development and other infrastructure projects. Nothing has been finalised yet”.
