TRANS HIMALAYA CONSERVATION NETWORK

The Trans-Himalayan Landscape

The Trans-Himalayan region is a cold, arid, mountainous landscape that covers the rain shadow regions immediately north of the Himalaya. The region is characterized by severe winters lasting over six months, with temperatures dropping to as low as - 50°C in some places. Another characteristic of the region is the short plant growth season of merely two to three months, when productivity is usually low. These harsh conditions have given rise to hardy and highly adapted flora, fauna and people.

Within India, the Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya are included in six states. Of these, the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, Lahul-Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh, and northern Sikkim have Trans-Himalayan areas that cover approximately 1.85 lakh km². Uttaranchal and Arunachal Pradesh, along with the other three states mentioned above, have alpine and high arid areas on their northern boundaries. The entire Himalayan block (2.1 lakh km²) is classified as the Biogeographic Zone 02 (Province A to D), or ‘Himalaya’, but the higher reaches, the Greater Himalaya, is a narrow belt quite distinct in topography, climate and vegetation from the rest of the Himalaya – being much colder, arid and being devoid of forests.

The Trans-Himalayan region forms the catchment of three major rivers. In the northwest, the Indus, with its major tributaries - Zanskar and Shyok, drains the entire Ladakh region. South of this, the Chenab river, with its tributaries, the Chandra and Bhaga rivers, drains the Lahul valley. East of Lahul is the Spiti valley that drains into the Sutluj river, which passes through the Kinnaur region. Within India two provinces in the Trans-Himalaya are recognized. The ‘Ladakh Mountains’ constitute approximately 60% of the Trans-Himalayan zone and is spread in the Kargil, Zanskar, Leh, Nubra, and Lahul-Spiti regions of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. These areas are mostly rugged mountains and valleys and have a large altitudinal range from 2,200m in the Kargil and Nubra regions to over 7,000m in the Karakorum range. The second province is the ‘Tibetan Plateau’ that constitutes the remaining 40% of the Trans-Himalaya. This region includes Changthang in Ladakh, parts of Spiti and the northern plateaus of Sikkim and is characterized by vast plains, rolling mountains and some large high-altitude lakes. Most of this region lies above an elevation of 4,200m.

In spite of the overall low numbers of species of plants and animals in the Trans-Himalaya, the region is home to an array of highly specialized assemblage of flora and fauna. There are over 600 flowering plants and numerous species of graminoids many with significant ethnobotanical value as medicinal plants, forage for livestock, or fuel. The region is also home to over 225 bird species, including numerous breeding waterfowl. Some of these species, such as the black necked crane (Grus nigricollis) and the bar headed geese (Anser indicus) are of considerable conservation significance. The region has gained further importance as it has over six species and sub-species of wild sheep and goats that are an important genetic resource from the region. There are numerous mammal species in the region that are classified in the Schedule I and II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and some of these are listed in Appendix 1 of CITES. Ecological information on all species from India is scarce, however, some details about bharal and snow leopard are known.

Although data on land ownership are not easily available, bulk of the land is State owned with traditional rights of use held by communities or individuals. Most usable land is already utilized as pastures, agricultural land, and for the collection of fuel, fodder and housing material.

Appendix 1

Large mammals of the Indian Trans-Himalaya along with their legal conservation status

Existing Conservation Scenario in the Trans Himalaya - Wildlife Protected Areas in the region

There are two National Parks (NP) and three Wildlife Sanctuaries (WLS) in the Trans-Himalaya, together constituting ca. 15,000 km2 or 8.2 % of the Trans-Himalayan zone in India. There are nine NPs and 11 WLS in the Greater Himalayan zone with coverage of a further ca. 15,000 km2 (7.6 % of the zone 02).

Even within the larger PAs there are numerous limitations at present. PA network in the Trans-Himalayan and the Greater Himalayan zones is comparatively large in extent. Also, it is evident that the region has some of the largest PAs in the country . However, the following facts need to be critically examined:

1. Some PAs such as the Karakorum WLS are large, but have unclear boundary demarcation. There are over 15 towns and villages and numerous military establishments within the area. The human population in the region is over 10,000. There is also a great amount of military activity and vehicular traffic in the area, and all these factors render the area barely qualified as a wildlife sanctuary. This, and other similar areas, however, inflate the proportion of area under PA network in the zone.

2. Most PAs have up to 50% of their area under permanent ice or glaciers, shear and large rock faces, most of which have little wildlife values, thus further inflating the size, but not contributing to the wildlife values directly.

3. There are no Reserve Forests in the Trans-Himalaya that usually buffer disturbances in most wildlife PAs elsewhere in the country. Hence it is only the PAs in the Trans-Himalayan areas that have any legal status for the conservation of the native biodiversity.

Conservation issues in the Trans-Himalaya

A variety of physical, biotic and political characteristics of the Trans-Himalaya influence conservation issues that are peculiar to the region. Chief among the challenges is the limited resources available to the native population of the region. These populations which mostly occur at low to moderate densities of <2 persons per km2, are primarily agro-pastoral, or, as in the Tibetan Plateau zone, are largely nomadic pastoralists. Human populations are increasing in the region with the breakup of the traditional polyandrous system and with fewer people opting for becoming celibate monks and nuns. An important factor that needs to be considered is that in the harsh Trans-Himalayan landscape there is hardly any area that is not already in use by people at some time or the other during the year. Arable land is mostly limited to alluvial fans, and some stable areas in the valley bottoms. Almost all the available arable land is already under cultivation and all pastures are grazed by the domestic stocks at least seasonally. Addition of newer areas under some poverty alleviation schemes incorporate development of expensive and long flow irrigation systems. Our observations show that these most frequently end up as failures since most of such channels are damaged by avalanches or are washed away by floods or simply break up due to the unstable substrate. Thus in spite of numerous efforts any significant addition of arable land is remote. National parks and sanctuaries in India do not permit consumptive use and require resettlement of people outside such areas. The point that we are driving at is that the Trans-Himalayan region has very specific and limited area for cultivation or use as pastures and thus offers no or very few alternatives for resettlement of people outside PAs. The region has other peculiarities such as very poor road access, power supply, and difficult communication, apart from a harsh climate during much of the year. These features of the region thus do not allow scope for conventional industrial development and employment in the region, as is possible in other regions of the country.

As far as the wildlife values are concerned a very important characteristic of the Trans-Himalayan area is that it provides almost continuous wildlife habitat. Almost the entire landscape has large mammals, including the snow leopard and wolf, but the densities may vary greatly from very poor areas to small pockets that may be rich in some large mammals. This means that a large amount of wildlife may actually be occurring outside existing PAs. In Nepal, for example, over 60% of the snow leopards are thought to occur outside PAs. In India, our coarse estimate is that of the probable maximum of 600 snow leopards in India, ca. 80% may be occurring outside PAs. Among other endangered wildlife species such as the Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, Tibetan argali, brown bear, and kiang, the entire or substantial populations occur outside existing PAs.The paradox here is that in spite of a very large proportion of the Trans Himalaya being under the PA network, numerous endangered species continue to occur outside. With this, and the fact that the region in general is resource deficient, with few livelihood options for the local herders we need to reconsider the approach of having large national parks and wildlife sanctuaries as ‘inviolate areas’ in the region. This is a challenging situation and the lack of a vision for conservation, as usually defined by Management Plans for PAs is absent at present.

Conservation issues common to the area primarily relate to deficiencies of infrastructure and staff for PA management, grazing competition between wild and domestic herbivores, conflicts relating to damage to crops and livestock by wildlife, some levels of poaching of snow leopard and prey species, wildlife diseases and political issues.

Grazing competition between wild and domestic herbivores, the entire region has heavy dependence on livestock. While some of the people are agro-pastoralists, many are entirely pastoral. Estimates range from 10 to a few hundred livestock heads per household in the region. Livestock population in the Indian Trans-Himalaya has been growing continuously in the past decades, as evidenced by data available from Ladakh, were the livestock population has almost doubled between 1972 and 1992. Even though conclusive information on habitat degradation, and direct competition between domestic and wild herbivores from the region has just started coming, it is evident from some preliminary studies that the present livestock grazing levels in areas such as eastern Ladakh and Spiti may already be unsustainable. The potential impacts of excessive grazing by livestock include depletion of the scarce forage for wildlife, habitat degradation, disease transfer, and reduction in the breeding performance of both wildlife and domestic stock.

Conclusive studies to ascertain impacts of livestock grazing need to be taken up at many sites. There is also an urgent need to see how the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities of the region can be drawn into a trade-off that reduces their dependence on large livestock holdings, while at the same time helps in improving their standard of living.

Livestock depredation by wild carnivores, livestock depredation seems to be a serious conservation issue in the Trans-Himalayan region. As indicated earlier, livestock rearing at present forms an important part of the local economy and any loss to livestock results in a direct monetary loss to the local herders. Park staff in Ladakh report that often up to 60% of their annual outlay goes in meeting the livestock depredation compensation claims filed by people. Damage to livestock takes place in the pastures as well as in the night time corrals. In India’s Trans-Himalayan zone only four studies have as yet quantified the extent of livestock damage due to depredation by wild carnivores. The damage to livestock in many of these areas is quite high and in some villages up to 14 animals per household have been lost in an year.

Integration of efforts by different Government Departments, owing to the remoteness of the Trans-Himalayan region, the state governments have resorted to a system of governance that is called ‘Single Line Administration’. Under this system, the district head, the District Commissioner (DC) or the Additional District Commissioner (ADC) becomes the head of all Government Departments working in the region. In addition, the Ladakh region, that constitutes bulk of the Trans