Climate activist Wangchuk announces border march in Ladakh

2 mins read

Ladakh’s climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Tuesday announced to lead a border march of 10,000 Ladakhis after concluding his fast to assess the extent of grazing land encroachment in the region.


He claimed that significant stretches of grazing land had been taken over by Indian corporations and annexed by the Chinese along the Ladakh border.


“Our nomads are losing prime pasture land to huge Indian 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,” he said in a post on X, adding 250 people slept hungry in – 12 °C to safegurad Ladakh’s land, environment and tribal indigenous culture.

Wangchuk said Ladakh was losing land “left, right, and centre”.


“If we go to Changthang plains on the border of Tibet or China, you will see how much land the nomadic tribes that are famous for producing Pashmina fiber are losing. On one side, they are losing land to Indian corporations who are coming there to set up their plants, industry, maybe mining in the future. There is already a huge 13 gigawatt solar plant and they are losing roughly 150,000 sq kms of prime pasture land,” Wangchuk said in a daily broadcast on X.


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


“On the other hand, they are losing their pasture lands to China, which is encroaching from the North,” he added.
He said Indian corporations are encroaching from the south, while the Chinese are advancing from the north, seizing significant portions of Indian territory in recent years.
He said there is a dire situation faced by these nomadic communities. The climate activist said they are doing ground-check to prove these facts.


“What we’ll do is 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 by these corporations for solar plants. Close to these solar plant sites are the Indo-Tibetan or Chinese borders, where these nomadic leaders can lead us and show us how far they used to go grazing, and now where they have to stop for us to get a real picture. This will give us a real picture of the scene.”


Wangchuk, however, feared security forces might stop them and allow them to proceed towards the border.


“Well, this will be 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 from Leh itself. That will be proof in itself. So I’m looking forward to either March 27 or 10 days later, on April 7,” he added.

Wangchuk is sitting on a “fast unto death” in Leh, and on Tuesday his fast entered the 14th day. The climate activist is on hunger strike in support of statehood and constitutional safeguards under the sixth schedule for the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Leave a Reply

Latest from Regional