Resource information
In this survey, the objective was to understand and evaluate the actual situation of competition over or sharing of resources and space between nomads and wild animals with regard to nomadic grazing within a national park. The subjects of the survey were the Rupshu Changpa (hereinafter referred to as Rupshupa), who move in the Rupshu area of the Ladakh region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Kiang (Equus kiang kiang), which inhabit the area around Tso Kar Lake in Rupshu. The survey method consisted of interviewing the Changpa as well as fixed-point observations and focal animal sampling of the Kiang during the spring, breeding period, summer, fall, and winter seasons between 2010 and 2013. Through this survey, an analysis was conducted concerning the nomadic grazing migration method of the Rupshupa and the situation of overlapping of the grazing areas and distribution areas of the Kiang during the breeding and non-breeding periods in the area around Tso Kar Lake. As a result, it was determined that the situation of usage of the areas around Tso Kar Lake by the Rupshupa and the Kiang was as follows : The Kiang mainly inhabited the dry areas during the winter through spring seasons, while grazing livestock separately inhabited wetlands and dry areas abounding in vegetation. In addition, while the Kiang make their territories in many places around the Tso Kar Lake area during the breeding period, the grazing livestock leave the surrounding areas and use other valleys and highlands that are geographically distant. Therefore, mutual spatial infringement between the Kiang and the grazing livestock during the breeding period was avoided. Moreover, the overlapping of the non-grazing period and the non-distribution period of the Kiang in the areas around Tso Kar Lake during the summer (August) had created a period of fallowing for the wintering rangeland that includes the rich wetlands. It was confirmed that the method of nomadic grazing by the Rupshupa consisted of not only very frequent movements among the rangelands intended to avoid concentrated usage of the rangelands in order to maintain edible grass but also several other shifting functions (resulting in keeping the Kiang and the grazing livestock separated) such as the following : 1) temporal and geographical shifting in the use of rangelands by having groups within the Rupshupa move separately ; 2) spatial shifting in areas that are used at the same time as the Kiang during the winter through spring seasons ; and 3) shifting as a result of absence of the Kiang during the breeding period and the summer season (May through September). It is thought that repeated shifting in these ways reduce impacts on wild animals and plants, and is a factor that makes mutual use of rangelands with the Kiang that inhabit the area around Tso Kar Lake possible.
