Spatiotemporal quantification of key environmental changes in Stok and Kang Yatze regions of Ladakh Himalaya, India

Abstract

Tourism fuelled economic transformation of Ladakh region is bringing a change in demography and livelihood preferences leading to increased exploitation of scarce natural resources. In addition to the nerve centre of tourism-related activities (Leh city), rural hinterlands of Ladakh are also witnessing a stark transformation in land and resource use patterns. In this study we quantified and assessed the changes in key environmental parameters of rural Ladakh between 1969 and 2020. We observed a decrease in glacier area, glacier volume and vegetation cover by ~19%, 13% and 14%, whereas built-up and lake area increased by ~238% and 122%, respectively. Simultaneously, local population of the region doubled while tourism footprint increased by ~620 folds. The study highlights the environmental changes happening at a higher rate in rural regions around Leh city. Therefore, need of the hour is to recognise the disruptive changes being brought in the traditional way of life and to devise strategies to reorient the development paradigm towards sustainable resource use and management.

Dynamics of Mountain Urbanisation: Evidence from the Trans-Himalayan Town of Kargil, Ladakh, India

“…Separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Great Himalayan range and edged by the Karakoram range to the north, the Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh is connected with Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh over high passes [24][25][26]. The sensitive environment has been affected by climatic variability, the exploitation of natural resources, natural hazards and disasters of varying scales over several decades [13,14,27,28]. Various changes in the administrative and political setup of this region and the socioeconomic conditions have affected strategies to secure food security [29].…”