KHARNAK, India (AP) 鈥� Nomad Tsering Angchuk vows to stay put in his remote village in India鈥檚 Ladakh region.
His two sons and but Angchuk is determined to herd his flock of fine cashmere-producing goats in the treeless Kharnak village, a hauntingly beautiful but unforgiving, cold mountainous desert.
The 47-year-old herds 800 sheep and goats and a flock of 50 Himalayan yaks in Kharnak. In 2013, he migrated to Kharnakling, an urban settlement in the outskirts of a regional town called Leh but returned a year later, not because his old home had become any better, he said, 鈥渂ut because the urban centers are getting worse and there are only menial jobs for people like us.鈥�
Nestled between India, Pakistan and China, Ladakh has faced both territorial disputes and the stark effects of climate change. The region鈥檚 sparsely populated villages have witnessed shifting weather patterns that have already altered people鈥檚 lives through floods, landslides and droughts.
Thousands of Ladakh nomads, known for their unique lifestyle in one of the most hostile landscapes in the world have been at the heart of these changes, compounded by border conflict and shrinking grazing land. The changes have forced hundreds to migrate to mainly urban settlements, while others work to make it a more habitable place.
Angchuk鈥檚 sons didn鈥檛 return 鈥� they don鈥檛 want to be shepherds, he said 鈥� and settled in Leh. One became a construction contractor and the other works at a travel agency, part of the region鈥檚 burgeoning tourism industry.
With 300-plus days of sunshine, the desert is in the rain shadows of the Himalayas and receives only about 4 inches (100 millimeters) of precipitation annually.
At an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,750 meters), temperatures can fall to minus 35 Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit) during long winter months. But it's getting hotter.
There is no word for mosquito in the local Ladakhi language, but the region has lots of these insects now, said Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer working on solutions for sustainability at his Himalayan Institute of Alternative Ladakh.
鈥淭hese are all coming with the viability of climate for them,鈥� he said.
Ladakh鈥檚 thousands of glaciers, which help give the rugged region its title as one of the water towers of the world, are receding at an alarming rate, threatening the water supply of millions of people.
鈥淭his year we had an unprecedented melting of glaciers,鈥� said Prof. Shakil Romshoo, a leading glaciologist and earth scientist.
Romshoo said his team has been studying seven glaciers in the Kashmir and Ladakh Himalaya for nine years but 鈥渢his year shows the maximum ablation,鈥� referring to the amount of snow and ice that has disappeared.
Drung-Drung, Ladakh鈥檚 second largest glacier, melted five meters (197 inches) in its thickness this year compared to an average one meter (39 inches) annually in last few years.
The melting, experts say, has been exacerbated by an increase in local pollution that has worsened due to the region鈥檚 militarization. Black carbon or soot from the burning of fossil fuels on the glaciers absorbs sunlight and contaminates waterways, threatening the region鈥檚 security of food, water and energy.
The pollution is 鈥渁 huge environmental onslaught,鈥� engineer Wangchuk said. 鈥淢ost of it is due to heating shelters that can be easily replaced by non-carbon-based heating systems.鈥�
He added Ladakh today is 鈥減robably the densest militarized zone where the civilian-soldier ratio is 1:2.鈥�
The ongoing standoff between India and China has witnessed the deployment of tens of thousands of additional soldiers to the already militarized region.
鈥淐limate change is a global mismanagement while the pollution is a local mismanagement. We鈥檙e witnessing devastating effects of the mix in Ladakh,鈥� Wangchuk said.
"It鈥檚 not just any little conflict, it鈥檚 much more than that and whoever wins we all lose.鈥�
Herders say with access to the usual breeding and birthing grounds blocked by militaries on either side, newborn goats and sheep are perishing in the extreme cold of higher elevations.
Shepherds roamed these pasturelands atop the roof of the world along the unmarked borders with China for centuries where the harsh winds cause the goats to grow their super-soft wool.
Cashmere takes its name from disputed , where artisans weave the wool into fine yarn and exquisite clothing items that cost up to thousands apiece in a major handicraft export industry.
鈥淣one of the other products get as much revenue as what they produce and they are the true generators of wealth in Ladakh,鈥� Wangchuk said about Kharnak nomads. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the most precious but they鈥檙e the most neglected lot.鈥�
The nomads live a grueling life and follow a strict round-the-clock routine. They milk and shear their animals twice a day, maintain stone-walled pens, weave carpets, collect and sun-dry manure for fire and cook food. Shepherds also shuttle their animals from place to place more often than usual in search of greener grazing areas.
But there鈥檚 almost no health care, school or a proper irrigation system.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a whole year work here, no holidays. Even if you鈥檙e sick you鈥檝e to tend to animals,鈥� Angchuk, the nomad, said. 鈥淚n a decade or so I think there won鈥檛 be any Kharnak nomads although our people will be around. We鈥檒l be history.鈥�
Authorities say they鈥檙e doing everything they can to stop the flight of nomads. Today the village has solar panels for electricity, government-built prefab huts and water taps. Some parts have telecommunication coverage.
But the herders say it鈥檚 not enough.
Tundup Namgail, the Leh district head of sheep husbandry department, said all facilities notwithstanding, the nomads need to be 鈥渓ured back on practical terms, not by romanticizing their life.鈥�
The 鈥渙nly way to keep them there is to improve their profitability. Make them rich somehow,鈥� he said.
Other solutions are emerging. Ice stupas, an artificial glacier made by villagers and named after a type of sacred Buddhist structure, are becoming an alternate water source.
In winter, villagers store water in the form of conical-shaped ice heaps that dribble down as the temperature warms.
In the region鈥檚 Kulum village this method has partially worked.
Some eight out of 11 families in the farming village migrated to other areas after a catastrophic drought followed deadly flooding in 2010 and dried up Kulum鈥檚 water.
A decade later villagers and a team of environmental activists, including Wangchuk, formed an ice stupa up in the nearby mountain. Last year, some families returned as a trickle of water from the man-made glacier irrigated some patches of the village field.
Still, experts say the climate change-induced flash floods and droughts have disrupted the hydrological system of many villages.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a kind of blessing in disguise that lesser people are doing farming now,鈥� Wangchuk said. 鈥淧eople who are not farming are in a way helping those who are farming by making available the little water that now comes.鈥�
Kharnak herder Paljor Tundup nevertheless worries he could be the last generation of shepherds in the region.
鈥淥ur children don鈥檛 want this life,鈥� he said as he picked up a hank of wool to pass on to his daughter weaving a carpet nearby. 鈥淗onestly, we also don鈥檛 have much to argue with them in favor of this kind of life.鈥�
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Aijaz Hussain, The Associated Press
