In the short summer of Spiti valley, when the snow melts on high
peaks, there is a spurt of intense agricultural activity around the
sparsely populated villages in the cold desert of Himachal Pradesh – for
four months between May and August every year.
Spiti, the ‘middle land’ between Tibet and India, is classified as a
sub-Himalayan desert that is mostly inaccessible for the rest of the
year when snowfall blocks the mountain passes. Due to its extreme and
inhospitable conditions, Spiti valley is one of the least populated
regions of the world, home to just 13,000 people living on 758,000
hectares of land.
When not snowbound, the stark sub-Himalayan landscape supports very
little life. Being in a rain shadow region, there is negligible
rainfall, leaving the mountains devoid of any vegetation. The climate is
marked by sharp turns in temperatures, high-speed winds, high altitude
atmosphere and low humidity, all of which makes the soil dry and almost
devoid of organic matter.
Barley fields near Langza in Spiti valley
Despite these handicaps, Spiti valley has been made habitable and
productive by sheer human cunning, doggedness and use of ingenious
techniques to cultivate crops like barley, black peas and potatoes, the
staple diet of locals, and more recently, green peas and fruits like
apples and seabuckthorn.
One of the remarkable features of farming in Spiti is its snow-fed
irrigation system known as the Kul. Tapped from the head of a glacier,
the Kul is a water channel that leads to a circular tank from which
water is let out in a trickle. The Kuls often cover long distances,
running down precipitous mountain slopes and across crags and crevices.
Water from the Kul is collected through the night and released into the
exit channel in the morning. By evening, the tank is practically empty,
and the exit is closed. This cycle is repeated daily.
Between sowing in April and harvesting in September, water
availability is for approximately 70 days. All available and accessible
patches of land along various snow streams and rivers are cultivated.
Barley fields near potatoes and green peas are sown in the month of May
and the crop is harvested at the end of August.
A traditional glacier-fed Kul water tank in Langza, Spiti valley
However, this unique irrigation system, carefully nurtured for
hundreds of years, is now failing due to the retreat of glaciers induced
by climate change. The glaciers are no longer playing their part as the
main suppliers of water. They have retreated so much that in some
places, they have completely disappeared and the Kuls receive very
little or no water.
A 2014 study by the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi said
annual temperatures in the Indian Himalayas rose by up to 2 degrees
Celsius over two decades, while the area of glaciers here have reduced
by 13% over five decades.
This was done through a remote sensing-based glacier study on
thickness and mass over the Lahual-Spiti region. Almost all glaciers
have shown a clear thinning at low elevations, even on debris-covered
tongues. The rate of ice loss is double that of the long-term (1977 to
1999) mass balance record for the entire Himalayas.
The peaks of Kinner Kailash mountain from Kalpa town in Himachal Pradesh
Glaciers are the symbol of an inviolate environment and are visually
and quantitatively among the most reliable indicators of climate change.
Since the early 2000s, average temperature in the Himalayas has
increased by about 1 degree Celsius, which is around four times the
global average. Temperature rise is more during winter and autumn than
during summer, and it is clear that the temperature increases with rise
in altitude, directly impacting the snow capped mountains, melting the
glaciers faster.
“In Spiti valley, de-glaciation has been to the extent of 10-12%
during 2001 and 2007. The rate of retreat of glaciers in Baspa and
Parvati basins has also been fast since 1962, in some cases as high as
172 metres per year,” S.S. Randhawa, Senior Scientific officer at the
Himachal Pradesh Council of Science and Technology, told indiaclimatedialogue.net.
“The area under snow cover too has changed from October to June in six
basins, and the decline in snow cover ranges between 5-37% in the
2010-2014 period compared with 2015 and 2016.“
The abrupt change in the weather is not only affecting the unique
irrigation system, but is endangering the very survival of traditional
subsistence crops and threatening the food security of the region.
For the last five years, farmers have been complaining that there is
lesser, low-quality crop and increased pestilence due to warming
weather. Some areas in the region saw maximum mean winter temperatures
going up by as much as 3.4 degrees Celsius from the 1980s.
Some farmers have responded by shifting their apple orchards up the hill slopes.
A study conducted by the Regional Centre, National Afforestation and
Eco-development Board and Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and
Forestry, Himachal Pradesh, points out that in the past three decades,
the apple crop is getting affected in all the hilly regions in lower
altitudes.
Farmers in Spiti valley have taken to planting apples
“The snow line, once considered as ‘white manure’ for the apple crop
and forest cover necessary for conservation and recharge of natural
water bodies has also shifted upward to higher hills,” the study said.
“Therefore, the quality apple production has shifted to higher hills and
dry temperate zones of Kinnaur and Spiti areas.”
Apple orchards on sheer mountain slopes at Tabo in Spiti valley
From a distance, the task of growing apples in the rugged landscape
of Spiti seems impossible, but a closer look reveals the extraordinary
ingenuity required to literally hug a mountain side, almost vertically,
divert snow water and grow apple trees.
The markets have given thumbs up to the Spiti apples, as they seem to
give to any Spiti product, going by conversations at the main market in
Solan in the lower reaches. If the claims of the horticulture
department are to be believed, the apple produce in Lahaul-Spiti has
been over 125 tonnes from 450 hectares this year, and is likely to
double in the next five years.
Enthused by the growing business, the horticulture department has set
a target of expanding apple orchards by 50 hectares every year.
But it was interesting to hear a dissenting view from Rajesh Kumar, a
local wholesaler. “The few crops we have received from Spiti are top
quality and fetch high price. More and more apple growers from Himachal
are considering to shift but it may not be such a good idea,” he told indiaclimatedialogue.net.
“Spiti valley is home to the snow leopard. It is a one-of-its-kind
ecosystem. All this increased human activity may not be taken kindly by
the mountains.”
First published on
India Climate Dialogue.
