High Pasturelands of Ladakh Himalaya English 2002

The higher altitude pasture belt in Ladakh consists of Chang-Thang and Zangskar regions which are economically known as poverty pockets of Jammu and Kashmir State and are marked for their precious uneven topography, inaccessibility, underdevelopment and geographic isolation from rest of the State. There is an absolute dearth of scientific information, data and literature of socio-economic and environmental conditions of the people of these pasture belts. For Chang-Thang area this is the first attempt in the history of Ladakh when a research work on pasturelands is carried out. This study is intended to cover a vast gap of information regarding the nature, pattern and extent, their socio-economic activities related to availability of pasture cover, migration cycle, grazing pattern, ecoIogical problems and to find out ways how pasture development under future planning may be possible? It humbly attempts to present a scientific assessment of the scope of pasturelands for the livestock development and ways for reducing the ecological problems. A brief summary of lessons which have come out after reviewing the socio-environmental activities of Chang-Thang and Zangskar regions along with recommendations for pasture development in higher pasturelands of Ladakh has been added. The findings of this study are based on supporting reference material and statistical evidences collected by the author in course of an extensive field survey of Ladakh during 1981-1993.