“Mosquitos and tourists!” Chokdup Lachenpa
shouts at no one in particular as he takes a long sip of Tongba (hot
beer) from his bamboo mug. As if on cue, the children chorus, “The
first is because of climate change and the second is the cause of
climate change,” causing much mirth and laughter among the customers.
We are sitting at Chokdup’s daughter’s tiny teashop-cum-bar in
Lachen, a small village perched 2,750 metres above the mean sea level
(MSL) on the right bank of the Lachen Chu river in North Sikkim.
Outside, in the foggy twilight, across the Himalayas, we can see the
headlights of a cavalcade of vans and jeeps that will soon bring
hundreds of tourists to Lachen for a night’s halt.
A view of the Lachen Valley
Situated on a grassy mountain slope, surrounded by snow-capped peaks
and forests of rhododendrons and conifers, Lachen is so beautiful it has
been declared a “heritage village” by the Sikkim government. And that
is its problem. The tag is accompanied by “eco-tourism homestays” pushed
strongly by bureaucrats.
It is the last stop for tourists going to Gurudongmar Lake, 5,430
metres above sea level. Buddhists and Sikhs consider the lake sacred.
Now, tourists from Maharashtra and Gujarat seem to be competing with the
peripatetic Bengalis to make Lachen the number one tourist attraction
in North Sikkim.
Feeling the heat
What most of the tourists won’t know is that Lachen valley is facing a
massive climate crisis. Behind those welcoming smiles, the Lachenpas –
the local residents, an indigenous tribe of the Bhutia community – are a
worried lot. Reduced snowfall, unseasonal rains and the forest fires of
last summer have made them all very anxious.
To make matters worse and potentially dangerous, Lachen is in the
path of the streams flowing down from the growing Lake Shako Cho. The
lake at the snout of the glacier by the same name is growing because the
glacier is melting faster. It is identified to be at high risk of
causing a glacial lake outburst flood, a type of flood that occurs when
the gravel holding in such a lake collapses.
A dried up snow stream in Lachen
According to an independent risk assessment modelling
by a group of scientists led by R. Worni, “The natural gravel
embankment holding the Shako Cho Lake inside could burst at any time,
releasing a tidal wave of water. Thangu, a village of about 100 homes
immediately below the lake, would be obliterated. The ensuing flood
could also demolish houses here in Lachen, 11 miles farther downstream,
especially those near to the unstable bluffs of the lake-fed river that
runs just east of the village.”
Climate change and glaciers
Climate change is already decimating mountain glaciers almost
everywhere on earth at the rate of 3% every year. In India, Himalayan
glaciers have lost about 10% of their volume in the past four decades.
The Jemu Glacier, not very far from Lachen, has retreated by around 20
metres per year during 1975-90, scientist Jagadish Bahadur wrote in his
book titled Himalayan Snow and Glaciers – Associated Environmental Problems, Progress and Prospects.
Even Gurudongmar Lake, the local attraction, has shrunk considerably,
according to the residents, raising a question about the sustainability
of the tourism industry. The rich biodiversity is also at risk.
“Lachen was the first village to ban plastic water bottles in India.
We have always practised organic farming, we have no industry that emits
carbon dioxide, we have no emissions, we own very little, nothing
compared to the people from the cities,” Hishey Lachenpa states as she
serves me another glass of hot tea.
Hishey Lachenpa in her tea shop
The rest of the teashop customers have left to placate the tourists
emerging, after slamming car doors, the babble of Marathi, Gujarati and
Bengali demanding tea, hot bath water, soda, room heaters and food.
Hishey is 18 years old and studies in class 12 in a public school
near Gangtok. She is back home during the summer vacation to help her
mother, who has converted a tiny 12 x 12 feet toehold into her home,
grocery store, teashop and bar. Hishey’s father is a monk and rarely
visits them. She sleeps here with her mother, sister and an adopted
younger brother.
“This year we had very little snowfall. Normally we have snowfall
from December to February. This year we had snow only in December and
then a little in January. But the rains seem to have come early. It will
surely affect the potato farmers in Thangu.” Hishey, who has studied
climate change at school, says with some authority. Numerous studies
have shown that climate warming has forced plants and animals to higher
altitudes.
A flash of lightning heralds the long threatened storm. Two men walk
into the teashop with the news that a landslide has blocked the road to
Gurudongmar lake and the Indian Army can do nothing about it until the
next day. So there is no need to wake up and leave at 3 the next
morning. They buy two nips of rum, borrow two glasses and disappear
quickly.
Traditional houses in Lachen
Gatuk Lachenpa’s house is the oldest in town, a simple two-storeyed
stone, earth and lime structure that withstood the September 18, 2011
earthquake. But almost 70% of such old houses in Lachen have now been
torn down to make way for gaudily painted, hurriedly built, brick and
cement tower blocks, which look most fragile and unsafe, but will help
maximise the benefits of tourism.
“Traditionally, Lachenpas used to cultivate barley, maize and buck
wheat for their staple and potatoes, turnips, radishes, cauliflowers for
their vegetables. But due to erratic weather and fear of water scarcity
in the future, most of them are increasingly abandoning their farms to
profit from the booming tourism business,” says Gatuk, a farmer who has
just built a 50-room hotel, right next to his ancestral home in the
middle of the village.
Minimising negative impacts
“Peak tourist seasons are March through May and September through
November. Seventy percent of tourists passing through Lachen are
Indians. They typically stay 1–2 nights in Lachen before heading off to
Gurudongmar Lake. It is good business. We have to make the most of it
till it lasts. While maximising the benefits of tourism, we have to
minimize its negative impacts.” Gatuk says.
Angden Lama Peak seen from Lachen
Measures like banning plastic drinking water bottles and segregated
garbage management and replanting of trees are seen as steps towards
minimising the negative impacts of tourism. But Lachenpas do not know
how to cope with climate change impacts and least of all about what to
do if the lake overhead bursts its banks.
Sikkim’s chief minister Pawan Chamling had once famously said,
“Sikkim is a mini-theatre which in a way displays how climate change
triggered by non-natural forces at the global level could bring
disastrous natural calamities.”
Lachen clearly is the main stage where all the catastrophic scenarios
predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are
being played out every day.
“The biggest worry is water scarcity. We used to get about 10 feet of
snow but last few years we have only received 2 feet. The barren
patches on the Angden Lama peak where our water comes from is a constant
reminder of how climate change will change everything for us in the
near future.” says Palzar Lachenpa, the current Pipon of Lachen, the
traditionally elected head of the local government, the Dzumsa.
“We have only just recovered from the devastation caused by the 6.9
magnitude earthquake of September 2011. All the houses have been
rebuilt. Many have added extra rooms to accommodate more tourists. We
will never be able to recover from another disaster. We know we are
sitting right under its nose, but what can we do?” Gatuk says worriedly
about Shako Cho Lake.
Climate calamity
Unseasonal rainfall, unusually stormy weather, landslides, receding
glaciers, short winters, accelerated snowmelt, longer summers, fears of
water scarcity, failed crops, mosquitoes, crows, tourism pressures and
the clear and present of a lake that can burst its banks – Lachen is in
grip of a climate calamity but this finds no mention in the Sikkim’s
State Action Plan on Climate Change.
“We are doing more than our fair share to reduce carbon emissions but
we need more information on adaptation to climate change, we have very
little understanding of what is happening. Everything is unpredictable
now — rain, snow, summer, winter, everything. We need precise weather
information, we need early warnings systems and we need better
predictions. More information, any information, to help me and the
Dzumsa to better prepare our people for what is to come,” says the
Pipon.
