Herders in Ladakh are struggling with dramatic changes to snowfall and rain that have shrunk and shifted their grazing grounds. For some, rising tensions along the disputed border between India and China have reduced the available pasture further.
Climate change has already changed the life and routines of Tsering, 57, a woman herder in the high-altitude valley of Gya-Miru, where much of the area is above 3,000 metres.
In 2016, when Tsering was the subject of the award-winning documentary Shepherdess of the Glacier she had 330 sheep and pashmina goats. Since then, her flock has shrunk to around 270, due to receding grazing grounds and diminished water resources. Glaciers are shrinking too. Ladakh’s largest glacier is Drang Drung, which shrank by 13.84% from 1971 to 2017.
Scant snowfall
Tsering has seen the valleys around her transformed for the worse in the…