Planning border march to highlight ground reality in Ladakh: Wangchuk

Srinagar, March 19

On hunger strike for the past two weeks in support of statehood and constitutional safeguards under sixth schedule for the Union Territory of Ladakh, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Tuesday said they are planning a border march soon to highlight the “ground reality” to the outside world.

Wangchuk, a renowned education reformist, has been on ‘climate fast’ since March 6, a day after talks between the joint representatives of Leh-based Apex body and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) heading an agitation in support of four-point demands and the Central government hit a deadlock.

Claiming that significant stretches of grazing land have been taken by major Indian corporations on one side and annexed by the Chinese along the Ladakh border on the other, Wangchuk said aim of the march is to assess the extent of grazing land encroachment.

“When we say ‘protect this fragile land and its culture and people,’ it’s not just some demand; we are losing land left, right, and centre. If we go to Changthang plains on the border of Tibet or China, you’ll see how much land has been lost by the nomadic tribes, who are famous for producing pashmina fibre, the Changpas,” Wangchuk said in his daily broadcast.

“On one side, they are losing their land in the South to Indian corporates that are coming there to set up their plants, industries, maybe start mining in the future. Already, with a huge 13-gigawatt solar plant, they are losing roughly 1.5lakh square km of the prime pasture land,” he added. “On the other hand, they are losing their pasture lands to China, which is encroaching from the North,” he added.

“So they have to now sell their goats and become jobless labourers in the cities,” Wangchuk added.

“We’ll conduct an on-ground check through a border march on March 27, a day after I end my fast. If I am in form, we’ll travel to the border, showing you live footage. Along with nomadic leaders, some 10,000 Ladakhi people will march to the borders and show you how much of their pasture land is taken over by these corporates for solar plants. Close to these solar plant sites are the Indo-Tibetan or Chinese borders, where these nomadic leaders can guide us and show us how far they used to go grazing, and now where they have to stop. This will give us a real picture,” he said.

He said the chances are that security forces will stop him tens of km behind. “Well, this will be a proof in itself that there’s a lot of things to be covered up. We’ll know if there’s nothing to hide and no land has been taken, then they’ll let us go up to where our nomads used to go in the past.”

“If they have things to cover up, then they’ll stop us 100 km away, maybe at Leh itself. That will be proof in itself. So I’m looking forward to either hold a protest march on March 27 if I am healthy. If not, then 10 days later, on April 7,” he added.

Nomads losing pasture land

Our nomads are losing prime pasture land to huge industrial plants to the south and Chinese encroachment to the north. To show the ground reality, we’re planning a border march of 10,000 Ladakhi shepherds and farmers soon. — Sonam Wangchuk, climate activist