Can Ladakh’s Fragile Equilibrium Endure Environmental Challenges?
Navigating Ladakh’s Delicate Balance, Identifying Causes and Presenting Solutions
Making the highlights nowadays, is the majestic city of Ladakh, drawing attention not for its sheer beauty this time but for the fragility of its ecosystem, increasingly imperiled. Ladakh forms part of the Third Pole, composed of the massive Himalaya-Hindu-Kush and the Tibetan Plateau. The Third Pole is situated in a mid-latitude location, flanked by industrial powerhouses like India and China. The Third Pole features most freshwater resources after the two poles, constituting 46000+ glaciers and more than ten major river systems with water available in varied frozen states: glaciers, permafrost, snow, and lake ice. Ladakh, from an ecology point of view, is classified as a high-altitude cold desert with flora and fauna characterized by low distribution density.
Climatic Challenges and Impacts
The union territory of Ladakh covers two districts, namely Leh and Kargil. Development has its side impacts and, similar is shown by the degradation in the Ladakh region because of expansion in mountainous zones and over-exploitation of resources. Developmental activities have seen a boom ever since it became a union territory in 2019.
Black Carbon: The escalating threat
Leh and Kargil harbor abundant mineral resources, including cement-grade limestone, marble, granite, and borax, along with others from the Archean era yet to be touched. Furthermore, Ladakh has been blessed with the potential to generate 33 GW of renewable energy from solar and hydroelectricity. With such promising industrial prospects, numerous emission sources in the form of heavy machinery and industries in nearby areas to process the resources, have long been established.
The two main contributors to the release of Combustion-derived Black Carbon (BC) in the region are biomass and fossil fuels, accounting for almost equal shares of 54% and 46%, respectively. Black Carbon gets released in case of poor combustion efficiency prevailing highly in South Asia, especially India, owing to open garbage, crop residue and animal dung combustion, brick kilns, and firewood cooking. Fossil fuel-generated BC has twice the warming potential of biomass. The Black Carbon generated in and around the Third Pole, including that in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, significantly speeds the glacier melting process because of the warming of aloft air masses transported into the Third Pole and the Albedo effect caused by sunlight reflecting off deposited black carbon particles.
Tourism: Nature’s toll for financial profits
Tourist activities in Ladakh have seen a tremendous surge in the last two decades, with visitors skyrocketing from 15,000 in 1996 to over 6,00,000 in 2023. Adventurous activities like trekking and camping fueled by tourist influx have led to typical physical impacts such as muddiness, trail widening, and soil erosion. Long concerning impacts on the region’s flora and fauna, including vegetation trampling, habitat fragmentation, wildlife disturbance in camping regions, and forest thinning, are easily noticeable now with years of gradual degradation.
Visitors are known to use almost 75 liters of water a day, nearly 3.75 times that of the locals. Building up of 500+ hotels and guest houses in Leh itself has resulted in the mass installation of flush toilets, leading to taps drying up.
Additionally, the ubiquitous peril of waste dumping, heavy pollution from vehicular traffic, and accumulation of plastic water bottles persist.
Military activities
The recent influx of troops and expansions of military bases due to Indo-China tensions have had adverse effects on the alpine meadows, wetlands, and high-altitude forests. “Rare species like the snow leopard, Tibetan antelope, and the black-necked crane face hindrances in their habitats due to heavy military activities in the region”, as highlighted by famous education reformist and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk. India alone emits almost 3,00,000 tons of CO2 annually in military operations, while the emissions from the Chinese side reach close to 1 million tons.
Changing seasonal patterns
Industrialization as a whole in this region has led to changes in seasonal patterns, causing water scarcity. The permafrost, the permanent frozen layer of soil, is melting rapidly. Being on the leeward side of the trans-Himalayan range, Ladakh receives only about 100 mm of precipitation annually and thus locals have resorted to digging borewells to fulfill water needs, depleting groundwater resources.
Current efforts and Key future measures
The positive development is that the recent 21-day hunger strike led by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, joined by almost 7000 more, has brought this issue into the limelight, encouraging the efforts of the community to safeguard Ladakh’s ecosystem. Collaborations with the Indian army to introduce passive solar-heated shelters, also called zero-emission shelters, have helped reduce emissions. Several other measures that can be brought into effect through joint efforts with the government include:
- Town planning with proper architectural norms, mandating the use of solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, and appropriate sanitation facilities, especially in hilly regions.
- Sustainable tourism development by promoting Homestays over star-rated hotels and limiting commercial adventurous activities in vulnerable regions. Several homestays are operated by women, which not only encourage environmental sustainability but, also enriches cultural interactions and empowers women.
- Effective solid waste management propelled by the ban and taxation of plastics, as commendably implemented in Himachal and Sikkim. Supply of portable local water to discourage plastic bottles.
- Foster Ladakhi practices of safeguarding ecology. The government supporting traditional local methods like Churpon, also known as Water Captain, in each village for water distribution for irrigation with proper monitoring can help people live in harmony with nature. Similarly, inventions like the Ice Stupa (artificial glaciers), conceptualized by Sonam Wangchuk, and local compost toilets Ldechot which are still being used by local people to convert the excreta into organic manure, continue to benefit the people.
Conclusion
With the ongoing practices, the Third Pole is warming up at a rate double that of the global average. An IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) report states that at least one-third of Hindu-Kush Himalayan glaciers are projected to melt off by 2100 even if global warming is held to a stagnant 1.5 degrees Celsius. It would lead to the shrinking of the Tibetan plateau, further causing frequent landslides, even lesser precipitation, and extreme events such as the Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF).
This is one of the reasons, why the people of Ladakh demand statehood and the sixth schedule for the Union territory. In such circumstances, it becomes imperative that regions in the Third Pole, like Ladakh, be handled and governed distinctly, in a way special from that of typical cities. Developments should be conducted with environmental and ecological fragility in mind in coordination and support of local authorities and the local people of Ladakh, promoting their traditional practices as well.
References
[1]: Li, C., Bosch, C., Kang, S. et al. Sources of black carbon to the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau glaciers. Nat Commun 7, 12574 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12574
[2]: Geneletti, Davide & Dawa, Dorje. (2009). Environmental impact assessment of mountain tourism in developing regions: A study in Ladakh, Indian Himalaya. Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 29. 229–242. 10.1016/j.eiar.2009.01.003.
[3]: Bhat, M.S., Khan, A.A., Akbar, M. et al. Disaster-development interface and its impact on emerging vulnerability scenario in Ladakh region of northwestern Himalayas. J Environ Stud Sci 13, 253–270 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-023-00818-9
[4]: https://www.reachladakh.com/news/opinion/ladakh-s-fragile-ecosystem
[5]: https://thediplomat.com/2019/03/the-worlds-third-pole-is-melting/
[7]: https://cprindia.org/safeguarding-the-fragile-ecology-of-the-himalayas/
[8]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ladakh-alarming-plastic-waste-reality-alluring-abhishek-deshpande/
