High altitude wetlands of Ladakh under severe threat

Merinews: While the threat of global warming has alarmed the entire world community since the past few years, back home in India it has been threatening the very existence of high altitude Himalayan wetlands in general and wetlands of Ladakh in particular. Ladakh has three main high altitude wetlands of Pangong Tso, Tso Morari and Tokhar which have been witnessing massive tourist activity thus threatening these wetlands.

“Major challenges to the high altitude wetlands of Ladakh include unplanned and unregulated tourism, tourist season coinciding with peak biological activity, infrastructure, tremendous grazing pressure, lack of awareness among the stakeholders, emerging threat of climate change and lack of coordination among various developmental agencies,” said Pankaj Chandan, India Coordinator, Himalayan High Altitude Wetlands Conservation programme while speaking at an extension lecture on the theme ‘Conservation and Management of Himalayan High Altitude Wetlands with a Focus on Black-necked Crane’,

…He said that the Himalayan high altitude wetlands of [Jammu and Kashmir] not only support the unique biodiversity in the region but are also source of livelihood for the local communities. At the regional level these wetlands also act as source of major rivers originating from the regions and supports billions and billions of people in the downstream regions. Forty per cent of the world’s population is dependent on water coming from Himalayas, he added. Enumerating few challenges before the conservationists working in areas like Ladakh, he said high altitude areas are very tough and difficult to work in.

….What is most interesting is the initiative taken by the WWF India for the conservation and management of Ladakh high altitude wetland is that it has started involving Indian troops at the wetland sites “That is amazing but we have been doing it successfully now. We are involving troops in Avifaunal Surveys, keeping records at the specific locations, for regular garbage cleanliness campaigns, distributing posters and other resource material developed by WWF and other organizations,” he said. “Training workshops for officers of the armed forces are being organized….

Mountains in Ladakh, shot by Jochen Westermann from München, Germany, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License