Thousands of livestock, including Pashmina goats, who were stuck on the India-China border for over a month have died due to fodder scarcity and severe cold wave condition. “Our primary assessment reveals that thousands of goats have died. While visiting the region, we have seen heaps of dead bodies of goats at many places. They have died due to fodder scarcity and cold,” said the Chief Executive Councillor of Leh, Chering Dorjay.Dorjay, along with other officials, had visited the region during the past four days to assess the situation.“We visited Hanlay, Kuyul, Rongo, Demchok, Kakjung, Tsaga, Samad, Nyoma and Mud. The mortality is very high in these areas. What is concerning us is that even after a month, no fodder or relief has reached Khanak where 30,000 to 40,000 Pashmina goats are stuck. We believe the situation in Khanak will be worse and the death toll will be higher there,” he said.The officials at Leh said around 1.5 lakh livestock, including a large number of Pashmina goat, have been stuck near India-China border for the past one month. The winter pastures in the upper region of Ladakh have been blanketed by deep snow and nomads have run out of fodder. The officials said the problem facing the Pashmina goats was brought to their notice by nomads who had travelled by foot to Leh. They had informed the officials that the fodder provided by the Government has been exhausted.The officials had dispatched some truck loads of fodder to some affected areas which were motorable. The administration had sought Army’s help for air dropping of the fodder, but the plan didn’t mature as the Air force provided M-17 helicopter for the purpose. The authorities asked the Air force to provide bigger aircraft so as to make sure that the relief reaches the affected villages, but the Army said due to technical reasons bigger aircrafts could not go to areas close to the border.
