Aiten Brokpa lugso: How sustainable is it?

27 October 2008

Can nomadic villages of Merak and Sakteng in Trashigang sustain their age-old practice of rotational grazing in the face of the present day environmental concerns? Does the environment support the conventional practice of owning as many cattle as possible depending on the natural regeneration of tsamdro? What are the environmental and economic implications of overgrazing?

Today, the people of Sakteng admit that their grazing land is shrinking due to landslides caused by overgrazing.

The signs of degradation of grazing land are clearly alarming. Pangkom under Sakteng gewog alone has lost more than 1000 hectares of grazing land to landslide. And there are at least five such pasture land, namely Kheyrong, Chabaling, Dagna, Luggi and Sheytemey under Sakteng and Merak gewogs all falling under Gamri watershed.

What is frightening is that all these degraded grazing land are located in the upper catchment area of Phongmey, Radhi and Shongphu gewogs which are currently facing landslides and flash floods. According to SNV watershed management and soil and water conservation specialist, Thinley Wangchuk, the loss of tsamdro is caused by the “unsustainable grazing system” that the people of Merak and Sakteng have been practising.

Thinley Wangchuk said that the grazing system followed by the people of two gewogs was unsustainable because the people had been relying on the “natural regeneration” of pastures. He added that the people might become rich by selling their dairy products but they would never invest anything on the improvement of their pasture land. This will lead to eventual decline in the productivity of cattle because the cattle are dependent on the naturally regenerated tsamdro, which does not contain enough nutritious grass. The low productivity of cattle in turn forces the herders to rear more cattle. The cycle goes on.

The livestock population in Merak and Sakteng has risen considerably in the last 38 years. The gewogs had 200 households in 1970s. Now there are more than 360 households. Only around 10 percent of these households do not own cattle, but they own horses that share the same tsamdro.

The size of the grazing land has been decreasing with a birth of every cattle. Furthermore, unsustainable grazing system is cause for the rising pasture land conflict in the gewogs like Radhi and Merak. As the tsamdros are fragmented by growing livestock in both lower and upper catchment areas of Gamri, cattle stray into each other’s grazing land causing conflicts. According to Thinley Wangchuk, there is every possibility of spreading the conflict between dzongkhags because the people from Merak go to dzongkhags like Tashiyangtse and Samdrup Jongkhar in search of grass for their cattle. If their practice of unsustainable grazing continues, other dzongkhags might stop entertaining herders from Merak and Sakteng fearing degradation of vegetation and resulting landslides.

Flash floods have already started washing away paddy fields in the lower catchment areas. Besides, flash floods that contain a large quantities of soil, logs and boulders destroy marine life. Thinley Wangchuk said that Bhutan’s economy was a hydro power- dependent one and if we wanted to boost it, maintaining the water quality is a priority.

“If we need our country to develop, we have to depend on our rivers. And if we need better quality of water feasible for hydro power generation, it is important that we maintain its quality at its source like Sakteng because pasture degradation indirectly affects the quality of water,” he said. How long can the environment sustain with what Merak and Sakteng claim to be their traditional way of life? The more Sakteng owns, the lesser it will have in the long-run. So, what is the remedy for such an unsustainable grazing system? One way is to make an input in improving the pasture rather than leaving it to natural process of regeneration so that the same area of pasture land can feed more livestock. “You cannot depend on rain and sun alone,” said Thinley Wangchuk.

Another option is to reduce the number of unproductive animals so that there will be less stress on the grazing land. The third option is to explore additional livelihood options such as NWFPs (medicina l plants, incense) and promote agriculture, especially vegetable cultivation. Promotion of eco-tourism is another option if it is feasible.

By Tempa Wangdi
Trashigang

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