{"id":20000950,"date":"2010-11-15T13:56:10","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T08:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/184.172.177.95\/~chinad\/?p=950"},"modified":"2020-11-16T17:11:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T11:41:03","slug":"fragile-adaptation-in-ladakh-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/water\/fragile-adaptation-in-ladakh-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragile adaptation in Ladakh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Destructive floods have led farmers to question their ability to survive in the arid reaches of the Himalayas.\u00a0Athar Parvaiz\u00a0reports from north-west India.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The\u00a0devastating flood<\/a>\u00a0that struck the normally arid desert of\u00a0Ladakh<\/a>, north-west India, in August has multiplied the worries of local farmers,\u00a0alreadystruggling with water shortages and harsh climatic conditions. Flashfloods and mudslides killed\u00a0233people and\u00a0damaged 14.2 square kilometres of agricultural land.Tucked high up in the western Himalayas, Ladakh is a sparsely populated, rugged desert where people struggle to\u00a0turn barren and parched\u00a0soilinto cultivable\u00a0land. The soil of Ladakh is\u00a0not fertile and absorbs little water. Average rainfall is only\u00a050 to 70 millimetres\u00a0a year.\u00a0In these adverseconditions,\u00a0farming is an unenviable task, butdiligent farmers, with support from NGOs, have created\u00a0an irrigation network covering 50 square kilometres of agricultural land in Ladakh. This allows them to live off the land,\u00a0against\u00a0the\u00a0odds.<\/p>\n

But nothing prepared farmers for August\u2019s weather events.\u00a0Unprecedented cloudbursts\u00a0triggered flash floods, which in turn\u00a0deposited thick layers of debris on the agricultural land\u00a0and destroyed\u00a0over 70% of the irrigation network built up by the farmers over\u00a0years of hard work. \u201cCrops can only be cultivated on this land after the flood debris is cleared and the top soil is exposed,\u201d said\u00a0Lobzang Tsultim, director of\u00a0local NGO\u00a0Leh Nutrition Project<\/a>. \u201cObviously, the farmers can\u2019t clear this debris manually, they need JCB machines, which the government and NGOs need to provide to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Tsultim, the government and non-profit groups\u00a0are making no effort\u00a0to restore\u00a0the damaged land, on which the farmers\u2019 livelihoods depend,\u00a0to its original state. Apart from tourism, farming is the main occupation of people in\u00a0Leh<\/a>\u00a0district. An average farmer makes up\u00a0toUS$1000 (6,680 yuan)\u00a0every year by selling\u00a0crops like barley, potatoes, wheat and other products\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0Indian army.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0recent floods\u00a0have\u00a0intensified local people\u2019s fears\u00a0about the shifting climate. They are unable to decipher\u00a0or\u00a0explain the erratic weather patterns, but\u00a0have no doubts that conditions are changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlaciers are receding rapidly and the winters are getting shorter and warmer. The snowfall which we\u00a0do\u00a0get, melts quickly,\u201d said Tashi Namgiyal, a farmer.\u00a0He added that the popular \u201cChadar Trek<\/a>\u201d,\u00a0a crossing\u00a0local Tibetans\u00a0have\u00a0made for generations during winter, when the\u00a0Zanskar River<\/a>\u00a0surface\u00a0\u2013 part of the Indus watershed\u00a0\u2013 freezes solid, is now possible only for two\u00a0months. It was previously possible from December to March.\u201cWe are now seeing pests in upper villages\u00a0that used to be found\u00a0only in villages lying lower,\u201d he added, pointing out other signs of changing conditions. \u201cWe are also witnessing shifts in sowing and harvesting of barley.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsultim agrees with this assessment: \u201cWhether you call it\u00a0man-madeclimate change or attribute it to other natural process, we are experiencing a lot of changes around us.\u00a0Our region is arid and we have small glaciers which we draw water from. But over the last several years, many of these glaciers have receded. Not only this, we have seen some of our limited pasture lands drying up because of water scarcity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The farmers\u00a0worry\u00a0they\u00a0may have to\u00a0migrate\u00a0away from their native land\u00a0ifthe glaciers \u2013\u00a0their source of water\u00a0\u2013 continue\u00a0to diminish. \u201cFarming is the only art we know. If there is no water left, there would be no agriculture, meaning we might have to leave this land one day in search of water,\u201d said another\u00a0farmer,\u00a0Sonam Tundup.<\/p>\n

\"\"
One of Norphel's reservoirs, damaged by the recent floods. Photo by Athar Parvaiz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Tsultim\u00a0believes there are other choices.\u00a0The\u00a0Leh Nutrition Project\u00a0has worked with Chewang Norphel, a civil engineer known as the \u201cIceman\u201d, who has pioneered innovative adaptive solutions to water shortages, including\u00a0artificial glaciers \u2013 created by diverting a water course, lowering its velocity and volume and getting it to accumulate in the shadow of a hill. [See\u00a0chinadialogue\u00a0article \u201cThe iceman of Ladakh<\/a>\u201d for more on Norphel\u2019s work.] These artificial\u00a0\u201cglaciers\u201d provide water to irrigate farmland\u00a0in the early cultivation season, when\u00a0there is not enough water available fromnatural glaciers.<\/p>\n

Norphel\u2019s\u00a0determination to help famers adapt to climatic changes has not stopped\u00a0here. He is now\u00a0building a reservoir near a huge wasteland, whichwill transform the area into cultivable land for the farmers of\u00a0Chamdaydo village. The 74-year-old\u00a0has\u00a0already\u00a0created almost 40 reservoirs in as many villages,\u00a0enabling farmers to turn wastelands into fertile farming territory.\u00a0Tsultim\u00a0asserts that adapting to the changing climate is the best option.\u00a0\u201cYou have to either adapt or\u00a0become\u00a0extinct.\u201d\u00a0This is\u00a0the message he wants to give farmers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Athar Parvaiz is an environmental journalist based in Kashmir.<\/p>\n

Homepage image from Athar Parvaiz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Destructive floods have led farmers to question their ability to survive in the arid reaches of the Himalayas. Athar Parvaiz reports from north-west India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20000038,"featured_media":20003134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,50039903],"tags":[17827,519,20000022,50040707,607],"hashtags":[],"country":[20000111],"class_list":["post-20000950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-water","tag-climate-adaptation","tag-climate-impacts","tag-himalayas","tag-the-third-pole","tag-water-scarcity","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFragile adaptation in Ladakh | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Destructive floods have led farmers to question their ability to survive in the arid reaches of the Himalayas. 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