Delhi announces border agreements, but Ladakh asks for autonomy and environmental protection
While India reached an agreement with China on border patrols, activist Sonam Wangchuk, 58, ended one of his many hunger strikes. Local herders, whose activities have been limited due to military tensions (unlikely to decrease, experts say), fear the construction of power plants.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – As Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck a deal over border patrolling in the Ladakh region, activist Sonam Wangchuk ended one of his many hunger strikes.
An engineer by training and an environmentalist by vocation, Wangchuk has been pushing the central government to grant Ladakh its own autonomous government so that local tribal communities can take care of the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.
The territory used to be part of Jammu and Kashmir State, which lost its statehood in 2019. In that year’s reorganisation, Ladakh was separated from the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, and both became Union territories.
Elections were held recently for the Legislative Assembly of the rump Jammu and Kashmir territory. Since then a series of attacks has occurred over a two-week period with at least 13 killed
Ladakh, on the contrary, has remained under the control of the central government without a legislative assembly or elected government.
Last week, while India struck a deal with over border patrolling in the Ladakh Territory, activist Sonam Wangchuk ended one of his many hunger strikes.
An engineer by training and environmentalist by vocation, Wangchuk has been pushing the central government to grant Ladakh its own autonomous government so that local tribal communities can take care of the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.
The territory used to be part of Jammu and Kashmir State, which lost its statehood in 2019. In that year’s reorganisation, Ladakh was separated from the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, and both became Union territories.
Elections were held recently for the Legislative Assembly of the rump Jammu and Kashmir territory. Since then a series of attacks have occurred over a two-week period with at least 13 killed.
Unlike the other Jammu and Kashmir Territory, Ladakh, remained under direct central control.
After months of failed negotiations, Sonam Wangchuk, 58, and a group of about 150 supporters began a march to the capital, New Delhi, in early September, covering hundreds of kilometres in a month.
For years, Ladakh activists have been demanding that the central government implement the Sixth Schedule of the Indian constitution, which allows a tribal area to become an autonomous district, with their own independent legislative, judicial, executive, and financial powers.
This is already in place in northeastern states, home to various ethnic groups. In Ladakh, as in northeastern India, 97 per cent of the population belongs to scheduled tribes officially recognised by the government.
“The sixth schedule gives locals not just a right but a responsibility to conserve their climate, forests, rivers and glaciers," Wangchuk told journalists during another rally in January this year.
In early October, when marchers reached the border with Delhi (National Capital Territory), they were detained for several hours. After his release, Wangchuk and others began a hunger strike, which ended only when the government promised to resume talks.
This pattern has been repeated for years, failing to produce any actual results, but at least, for some observers, it has allowed Wangchuk to keep public attention on the territory.
In the 1980s, he saw first-hand the inefficiency of a school system imposed by the central government.
“All the textbooks, even in early primary classes, came from Delhi. The examples were of unfamiliar cultures and environments like ships, oceans, coconut trees and monsoon rains,” reads a note on the website of a school he co-founded. “These alien examples in alien languages only confused Ladakhi children.”
A graduate in mechanical engineering, Wangchuk has carried out a series of projects useful for the local population, including artificial springs to store water, and a mud-based type of house capable of maintaining the temperature inside at 15 degrees even when it is -15 outside.
Ladakh has long been at the centre of the infrastructure development policies by the Indian government, which considers the region strategic due to its position between Pakistan and China, India’s main regional rivals.
Recently, the construction of highways, energy projects, and military infrastructure has been authorised. But for Wangchuk, while, “We don’t oppose development. We want sustainable growth”.
The protesters who accompanied the environmental engineer on the march to New Delhi say that government projects do not bring any benefits to the local population.
“Our natural resources are getting exploited. Unemployment is very high. Local businessmen are unhappy. So, who is this development for?” wonders one protester, Haji Mustafa, speaking to the BBC.
Local herders (called changpas) are particularly concerned about the construction of renewable power plants in the Changthang region which, covering hundreds of square kilometres of land, risk affecting pastures and putting an end to their activities.
The electricity produced by such plants will be sent to Haryana State to be connected to the national grid; what is more, no information is available about the companies that will develop the project.
For changpas, over the past five years, their access to pastures has been restricted by border tensions with China.
This morning, after New Delhi and Beijing announced an agreement on patrolling the shared border, Indian defence officials reported that they had begun withdrawing equipment from the Demchok and Depsang plains, in the eastern sector of Ladakh, but some experts note that existing military assets will remain intact since all that the military is pulling out are tents and temporary structures.
Military experts note that the agreement does not mean de-escalation. “It’s solely disengagement, which means the face-off is no longer there in Depsang and Demchok,” said analyst Pravin Sawhney speaking to Scroll.
In fact, “It doesn’t mean that they (China) have vacated the area they came to occupy in 2020. It only means that they have allowed us to patrol in those areas by informing them. Nothing more than that.”
INDIAN MANDALA IS THE ASIANEWS NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO INDIA. WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE IT EVERY FRIDAY? TO SUBSCRIBE, CLICK HERE.
.png)
