Picture an early morning in Sumdo; it’s a village in Ladakh. Against a crisp chilly breeze, the sun slowly comes up – Water droplets start surfacing from small frozen streams and trickle down to the sounds of birds - twittering, chirping, singing, and whistling.
Jigmet, a young man, steps out of the house to check on his flock of sheep. Last night, a snow leopard had ventured into the area, he was told. Looking at the sheep, his face brims with pride. His flock is safe. The wire mesh he installed, not long ago, must have prevented the attack last night.
He feels at ease.
Shepherds across the Himalayas, like Jigmet, have spent sleepless nights trying to protect their herd from such attacks. In 2019, I visited an ecotourism initiative in Ladakh, that thrives on snow leopard conservation. I found it thought-provoking, that a community, which constantly lives under the fear of predators, like snow leopards, harming their livestock, saw value in a snow leopard lurking about their village.
The following year, I visited a women-led self-help group that played an instrumental role in greening adventure-based tourism in the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve (Sikkim), winning awards and recognition for protecting their local biodiversity.
These experiences got me thinking, what brought people together to conserve nature and wildlife around them, especially at times when there were no immediate economic benefits in sight? This blog aims to recognize people’s contribution to biodiversity conservation in some of the harshest and most remote Himalayan landscapes of India.
Being the youngest, yet highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas provide essential resources that benefit millions of people within the region and beyond. A global biodiversity hotspot, these mountains harbor a multitude of plant and animal species. At elevations above 10,000 ft, the high-altitude Himalayan region is characterized by permanent ice, steep terrain, large glaciers, fragile geological formations, and harsh climatic conditions on one side; and rich and diverse wildlife, beautiful lakes, and vast, welcoming meadows on the other. This land of contradiction offers much to wonder about - how have people thrived in such a fragile landscape?
Villages here are sparsely populated, people experience harsh weather, extreme climatic events, and scarcity of resources. As a result, customary practices and traditional knowledge systems are built in their culture, for the need to survive and preserve precious natural resources. This is reflected in festivals associated with sowing, weeding, grassing, fodder collection, and harvesting; joint social regulations on irrigation and water supply to individual fields; local medicinal systems; practices of animism, rearing livestock as a livelihood; rock art found across Ladakh and Spiti with an overwhelming representation of wildlife.
While new methods of biodiversity conservation continue to take shape with advancements in science, technology, and our shared pool of information, traditional knowledge - an important contributor to the same - stands the threat of being sidelined, and with it, the communities practicing these customs.
Watch this film for noteworthy traditional ecological practices from the Himalayas
The changing aspirations of the youth and increased investments in education and public services in urban centers have led people in the Himalayas to migrate to towns and cities in search of better opportunities. Taking from the award-winning film, “Shepherdess of the Glaciers” by Stanzin Dorjei Gya, young people don't want to continue practices, like shepherding, of its long-arduous journeys, risks, and low economic returns.
One way of ensuring that this knowledge is passed down is by engaging with rural youth through out-of-the-classroom experiential learning programs. An example of this is led by organizations like Achi Association India, which partnered with UNDP to organize a series of workshops with students at the Nomadic Residential School, Ladakh, and their elders to introduce traditional knowledge-based modules in the education system. This resulted in the students connecting with their natural environment, having a deep understanding of their local ecology, and learning about ways of conserving it through folk tales, stories, and songs.
An integrated approach involving local communities and their traditional conservation practices will help enhance existing efforts on biodiversity conservation. Such practices, from the Himalayas, may inspire new thoughts and approaches towards conservation, one where people understand the value of biodiversity and take ownership of its sustainable management. Thus, the need to document, preserve, and educate people about traditional ecological knowledge becomes increasingly relevant, in an age where its role in society is getting diluted.
Like in all facets of life, adapting learnings from the past may help one make a better future.
Vedant is the strategic design and innovation officer at UNDP. This article was first published on his LinkedIn Profile.
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