ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Wildlife Main Casualty On Border With China Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit INDIA: Wildlife Main Casualty On Border With China By Ranjit Dev Raj GANGTOK, India, Jun 9 (IPS) - Landmines, barbed wire and bullets are decimating rare, near-extinct wildlife species in Sikkim, this militarily sensitive, northeastern Indian state overlooking the Tibetan plateau. A decades-old border dispute with China and Beijing's non- recognition of Sikkim as an Indian state justifies the presence of the army which shares hauntingly beautiful north Sikkim with several rare wildlife species and uneasy Bhutiya villagers. High on the endangered list is the 'shapi', said to be the fossil ancestor of both the sheep and the deer and distinct from either for the luxuriant mane it grows to survive on the glaciated slopes of the Kanchenjunga massif - its last refuge. ''Heavy army presence on both sides of the border for almost half a century has been detrimental to the wildlife and delicate ecology of northern Sikkim,'' says a senior officer in the state's forest department who may not be identified. The shapi was discovered in 1938 by a German naturalist, Ernst Schaefer who succeeded in taking back a stuffed specimen to Berlin but was declared persona non-grata in British-ruled India because of his high standing in Nazi Germany. The shapi is now estimated to number less than 50 and is on the verge of extinction because of its ever-shrinking natural habitat. Even photographs of live shapi are rare because of the animal's elusiveness and army restrictions on cameras. Says Pemba, a yak herdsman, ''The only shapi I have come across in recent times was one which was blown up after it jumped over barbed wire and into a minefield.'' Pemba was even more concerned about his yaks which he says often stray over the ill-maintained, three-strand barbed wire fencing which encloses the extensive minefields. Signboards in English, Hindi and local languages warn the people to stay clear of mined areas but obviously do not deter cattle or wildlife. ''Life is hard enough in these high altitude regions which freeze over in the winter months and losing our yaks naturally add to our problems,'' Pemba said. Members of the cattle family, yaks thrive at high altitudes and are to the Bhutiyas 'living supermarkets' providing milk, cheese, wool, leather and safe rides on the precipitous mountain tracks. Yaks are lumbering, domesticated animals and have herders to look after them unlike the fleet-footed shapi, Tibetan gazelle, Tibetan wild ass (Kiang), blue sheep and alpine musk deer which easily spring over the barbed wire to their doom. According to the villagers, wildlife herds often charge into minefields when they are attacked by snow leopards, an equally endangered species, which naturally prey on them. ''Both predators and prey get blown up when the chase enters the minefields like those in the Dongkung and Cho Lhamu lake regions,'' says Thupten a yak herder. While Dongkung is a rich alpine pastureland, the picturesque Cho Lhamu lake is one of the many high-altitude lakes in the region recognised as geological relics of the last ice age. Snow leopards and wolves are not the only predators in these areas. They are now joined by roving packs of feral dogs, engendered by alien breeds introduced by soldiers, which worry and chase wildlife. Says Usha Lachungpa, a wildlife expert, ''The Tibetan mastiff, famed for its discipline as guard dog and used by the Bhutiyas to herd their yaks and sheep no longer exists because of mongrelisation.'' The army has also brought in mules and a variety of unwelcome camp followers such as mosquitoes which were unheard of in this tundra-like region till recently. ''The ecology of the region is definitely being disturbed and anybody can tell that this is adversely affecting the natural habitat of several wildlife species,'' Lachungpa said. She said villagers have reported seeing herds of wild animals charging across the Tibetan border after being fired at by Chinese soldiers only to meet their end in Indian minefields. Responding to local criticism of the minefields, Maj General U.K. Dube, general officer commanding (GOC) responded to the state government officially saying, ''Minefields are an integral part of any defensive layout ...'' The army also pointed out that it had ''in times of need responded with great alacrity to help the local population as civil administration is constrained in the discharge of their normal functions due to limited accessibility of these areas.'' However, there are signs of restiveness among the Lamaistic Bhutiya villagers concerning cultural and ecological changes wrought to their isolated homelands by the army's presence. In particular, the construction of a gurudwara (Sikh temple), a parking lot and a bathing facility by the army at Gurudongmar Tso a sacred Buddhist lake lying between Dongkung and Cho Lhamu has sparked resentment among the local people. Said Anung Lachenpa, the pipon (elected village headman) of Lachen, ''The Gurdongmar Tso is a sacred lake for the Buddhists of Sikkim..... we want its original look and sanctity restored.'' A local environment group 'Green Circle' has complained that the parking lot at the high-altitude (5,000 metre) lake has allowed oil and other contaminants to seep into its pristine waters. Green Circle was backed by the environmentally-conscious chief minister of Sikkim, Pawan Kumar Chamling in getting the army to scrap, last year, plans for a firing range at Thangu on the road between Lachen and Gurudongmar Tso. ''The firing range would have sounded the death knell for the endangered rare flora and fauna which include the famed red panda, red fox, several species of rodents and medicinal herbs,'' said D.R. Pradhan, treasurer of Green Circle. Following subtle pressure from Chief Minister Chamling, the army recently announced the removal of the bathing facility and closure of the parking lot at Gurudongmar Tso. But the army has officially declined to dismantle the Sikh gurudwara on the grounds that it would hurt the sentiments of soldiers from distant states posted in north Sikkim. (END/IPS/rdr/an/99) (c) 1999 IPS ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-06.14.99-23:58:32-16719