On March 6, in Leh, a town situated at about 3,500 metres in the cold, arid Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh, Sonam Wangchuk, Ladakh’s famous educationist and environmentalist, began a 21-day hunger strike that he called a “climate fast”.
The strike was in support of thousands of Ladakh residents who have been demanding safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution so they can make decisions regarding the use and management of resources such as land and water. They currently can’t.
Mr. Wangchuk discontinued his hunger strike on March 26; it is currently being continued by women in Leh. If their demands stay unmet, the youth, monks, and the elderly have said they will join the hunger strike as well, in phases.
Why a hunger strike?
In August 2019, the State of Jammu and Kashmir was split into two UTs: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. It ended people’s exclusive rights on land and jobs.
Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, Ladakh became a UT without a legislature.
“Our UT is administered by a Lieutenant Governor, who is a not a Ladakh resident, and yet is appointed to take decisions for our future,” said Jigmat Paljor, coordinator of Leh Apex Body (LAB), a collective of political, social, religious, and student organisations of the Buddhist-majority Leh district.
Several bureaucrats in key positions, influencing decisions for the region’s future, were also not residents of Ladakh, Sajjad Kargili, a core committee member of Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) of the Muslim majority Kargil district, said. Like LAB, KDA is a collective of Kargil’s political, social, religious, and student organisations.
Mr. Kargili further said the existing Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs) in Leh and Kargil were rendered powerless after the national government declared Ladakh a UT.
The draft Ladakh Industrial Land Allotment Policy 2023 is a case in point. While the LAHDCs have the powers to make decisions on land use and its management, the draft policy, which has been designed to attract investments in Ladakh, completely excludes them from having any powers related to land allotment- and lease-related decision-making.
Mr. Paljor said villagers along the border region in Ladakh were losing grazing land to China, as well as to industries planning on establishing renewable energy projects in the region, and yet the affected residents lacked the authority to intervene in matters concerning their own land.
The LAB and the KDA have also contended that the Sixth Schedule could help tackle these issues because it enables the establishment of regional and district councils with the authority to make laws regarding land use for grazing, agriculture, residential purposes, and towards other purposes that cater to the residents’ interests.
Considering more than 97% of Ladakh’s population of over 2.74 lakh (2011 Census) is tribal, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes recommended in 2019 that Ladakh be brought under the Sixth Schedule.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) manifestos ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2020 LAHDC elections had promised to bring Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule. It remains unmet.
In an effort to persuade the BJP at the Union government to bring Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, LAB-KDA representatives have engaged in discussions with various ministers on at least 10 occasions between 2020 and March 4 this year. A few of these negotiations, including the most recent one on March 4, have happened with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Mr. Kargili, who has been participating in the negotiations with the Centre, said LAB-KDA’s demands since 2021 have included safeguards under the Sixth Schedule, either statehood for Ladakh or declaring it a UT with a legislature, a separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh, and separate parliamentary seats for Kargil and Leh. The Centre has not yet accepted them..
“The current hunger strike is a result of numerous unsuccessful negotiations with the Centre,” Mr. Kargili said.
What are the pressures on local resources?
According to recent data from the Ministry of Tourism, Ladakh is witnessing a high influx of domestic tourists. In 2022, more than 5 lakh domestic tourists visited the region. In Leh alone, which is Ladakh’s largest town, while just over half a lakh domestic and foreign tourists visited in 2007, by 2018 the number had risen to 3.2 lakh. An article published in 2019 stated that built area in the town had increased from 36 hectares in 1969 to 196 hectares in 2017.
Rapid urbanisation and increasing tourist footfall are exerting significant pressure on resources in Ladakh, particularly water.
A report on water-related issues in Leh published in 2019 by Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association, South Asia (BORDA-SA), and Ladakh Ecological Development Group calculated that in Leh, a tourist used about 100 litres of water a day in summers and 60 litres in winters whereas a local used about 75 litres a day in summers and 50 litres in winters. The poor, especially migrant workers, had access to only 25-35 litres per person per day. To meet these requirements, the dependence on underground water, which is often contaminated, had increased, the report found.
Stanzin Tsephel, former regional director of BORDA-SA and a co-author of the report, said the issue was with water management rather than availability.
Deleks Namgyal, president, All Ladakh Tour Operators Association, said about 70% of tourists visit the UT between May and July each year.
However, Mr. Namgyal was worried about the possible narrative against tourism the ongoing hunger strike could feed. “We want tourists to visit Ladakh because it is important for our region’s economy, but we want sustainable tourism and we are working towards it,” he said.
How does climate change threaten the region?
In the last two decades, Ladakh has been affected by several floods, landslides, and extreme rainfall events. For instance, in August 2010, several parts of Ladakh, especially Leh, were hit by flash floods triggered by cloudbursts. Nearly 255 people died in the deluge. In August 2014, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), caused when a glacial lake is breached, damaged houses and bridges in Gya village. More recently, in August 2021, a GLOF near Rumbak village also damaged roads and a bridge.
A study published in 2020 estimated that Ladakh has 192 glacial lakes. Several research articles also state that due to increasing temperature caused by global warming, the number and sizes of glacial lakes in the Himalaya are increasing, and glaciers are shrinking. This trend has increased the threat of possible GLOFs in Ladakh, especially from proglacial lakes that are formed at the edge of glaciers, said Irfan Rashid, a glaciologist from the University of Kashmir, who conducts research in the UT.
“The increased temperatures are also resulting in permafrost degradation and are causing mudflows in Ladakh,” Dr. Rashid added.
According to Sonam Lotus, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department’s Meteorological Centre at Leh, “the region’s lowest minimum temperature has increased”. While the lowest minimum temperature recorded in 2011 was minus 23.6 degrees C, in 2023 it was minus 16.8 degrees C, Mr. Lotus said.
Despite the challenges posed by climate change, mining and renewable energy companies are eyeing Ladakh, and tourism-related activities are on a rise.
With significant tourist influx, pollutants from vehicular traffic (like black carbon) will settle on snow and ice and expedite melting.
Mohammad Farooq Azam of the Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, who has undertaken glacio-hydrological studies in Ladakh, said mining activities might increase slope instability, making them landslide-prone. Dust from mining that will settle on glaciers could also accelerate their melting.
Kavita Upadhyay is an independent journalist and researcher who writes on issues of environmental governance in the Indian Himalayan Region.
