Herders caught in the icy conflict between India and China

Chushul (India) (AFP) – Lines on a map once meant little to Indian Tibetan herders of the high Himalayas, expertly guiding their goats, even in the harshest winters, to pastures on centuries-old seasonal routes.

That came to a halt in 2020, after troops from nuclear-armed rivals India and China clashed hand-to-hand in the disputed high-altitude border lands of Ladakh.

Expanses of pastures became demilitarized “buffer zones” to separate rival forces.

For Morup Namgyal, a 57-year-old herder, like thousands of other semi-nomadic goat and yak herders from Changpa’s pastoral people, this meant traditional lands were closed.

“The Indian army is stopping us from going there,” Namgyal said, pointing to the treeless, ice-streaked peaks. “But this is our land, not China’s.”

The village of Chushul lies in freezing air at an altitude of about 4,300 meters (14,110 feet), although herders used to take their herds even higher.

“Reduces risk”

China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are bitter rivals vying for strategic influence in South Asia.

An Indian military camp in eastern Ladakh, where tensions with neighboring China have been high in recent years © TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP

But the border skirmishes of 2020, which killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, raised alarm bells.

Both sides withdrew tens of thousands of troops and agreed not to send patrols into a narrow demarcation strip.

“The physical separation of the two armies has significantly reduced the risk of clashes,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a report last year.

But the breeders say they are losers, caught in a conflict for which they are not responsible.

The Changpa, a Tibetan Buddhist ethnic group, are expertly adapted to raising goats in an extreme environment, conditions that produce some of the finest cashmere wool, valued for its exceptional warmth.

But Namgyal said his herd of white, fluffy goats was suffering. Its animals, once combed, produce ultra-fine hairs which are transformed into cashmere yarn used in luxury scarves.

Ranchers say the lost pastures were less harsh in winter, providing grazing even when temperatures drop to -35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Total disengagement”

“We used to go to these areas for winter grazing,” said Konchok Stanzin, a local councilor in Ladakh, India.

The Pangong Tso saltwater lake in the disputed borderlands of Ladakh © TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP

Stanzin claimed that as much as 450 square kilometers had been declared off-limits in Chushul alone, an area on which some 2,000 people from 12 villages once depended.

This is a sensitive subject and Stanzin tactfully pointed out that “the army’s point of view may be different.”

A senior Indian security official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said restrictions had to be imposed because livestock movements into the buffer zones were “considered an aggression “.

For decades, Indian troops have patrolled border areas. After 2020, both parties withdrew.

“Infrastructure in the form of defense observation posts and other structures has been dismantled,” Stanzin said.

However, after withdrawing their troops, India and China are strengthening their defense infrastructure in other ways.

Indian Army armored vehicles sit at a military camp in eastern Ladakh © TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP

On the Indian side, this includes new roads, entrenched artillery positions, bunkers and sprawling military camps.

The Indian military does not routinely comment on operations in the region.

But after the latest border negotiations in February, he said he was “seeking complete disengagement” along the boundary line as an “essential basis for restoring peace.”

China’s Defense Ministry said last month that the situation on the border was “generally stable”, with both sides using diplomatic and military channels to “resolve border issues on the ground”.

“Hostile Encounters”

The area remains worrying.

The ICG think tank warned that the “lack of clarity” over the border meant “hostile encounters were bound to recur”, with potentially dire consequences for regional security.

“The dispute in the Himalayas is now as much about strategic competition between Asia’s two biggest powers as it is about the territorial value of the border itself,” he said.

Namgyal Phunchok, a leader of the Changpa community in Chushul, told AFP that the area's pastoral way of life had been undermined. — Namgyal Phunchok, a leader of the Changpa community in Chushul, told AFP that the area’s pastoral way of life had been undermined. © TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP

“To prevent further fighting, it is necessary to ensure that competition can be managed amicably on the heights.”

India provided insulated winter huts for the Changpa.

A government official suggested the buildings created permanent settlements, reinforcing a strategic defensive policy aimed at solidifying India’s presence.

Namgyal Phunchok, a Changpa community leader in Chushul, said the herders’ way of life had been undermined.

“In winter, the government provides us with fodder for our goats,” Phunchok explained. “But it’s not the same as natural grazing.”

Phunchok said his people were once “like an army without weapons or pay”, acting as unofficial eyes and ears like a military patrol.

“Today this land is lost to us,” he said.

Cashmere wool production plummeted and about a tenth of the families in his village stopped raising goats altogether.

“Every year our difficulties increase,” Phunchok said.