WHITE DEATH STRIKES AGAIN

Winter usually is a quiet season, with few snowstorms and mostly sunny days, allowing to pasture herds on wide open steppe stretches. 

But there are times when heavy snows blanket vast spaces, so that animals can not dig out dried grass from beneath a thick snow layer and starve en masse. This is called a Dzud or White Death, a natural disaster decimating the herds and depriving nomads of their main mean of livelihood.

Due to the global warming impact and human activities, the natural cycles are being disrupted, and dzud disaster strikes more often. Hot and dry summers bring draughts and frequent winter snow storms challenge the very existence of the traditional ways of steppe pastoral nomads.

Herders, not recovered yet from the last winter losses, again face the White Death this year with almost two thirds of the country covered by up to one meter deep snow. 

The State Emergency Commission reports that 55,000 herder families along with their 12 million livestock are being hold hostage in the disaster stricken areas. According to the estimates, up to 800,000 animals already starved to death and this figure continues to rise. 

Piles of dead animals around winter shelters, a common scene in many places.

 "I am afraid that by spring people will have no animals other than dogs," says D. Ulaankhuu, local governor of the Altanshireet county in Dornood province. "We simply can not help herders. All the hay and forage we had was given away. And there are still four months to go until the first grass comes." 

"I have not seen anything like this in my whole life," says herder Khuuhenkhuu from South Gobi. "We find only dust and stones in stomachs of dead animals." 

Many herders simply slaughter weak animals and seek escape in other provinces, sometime hundreds of kilometers away across barren, snow covered stretches, with no winter shelter or warm house to protect against cold and winds.

But there is little hope as snow blankets almost the entire country. 

"Just give us forage for animals, we will survive," herders who have not got enough food and clothes themselves, beg the representatives of the international aid agencies. Livestock is the main mean of herders' livelihood, a guarantee of future life. Herders know this and are willing to sacrifice everything just to preserve their herds. 

And though the high government officials blame herders for their "failure" to stock up enough hay for the winter, and their "adherence to the socialist mentality" of looking for the government handouts, this disaster is a natural consequence of the government policies.

Crisis of traditional husbandry
Herders in Dashinchilin county of Bulgan province recently took into arms refusing to allow to their pastures herders from other places seeking an escape from dzud. This kind of refusal to help fellow cattle-breeders was never heard before and goes against all the nomadic traditions. 

But last year, even regions not seriously affected by disaster lost many animals as their pastures were depleted by the double the normal number of animals, mostly coming from other areas. A new word appeared in the vocabulary of herders, "hoof dzud," meaning barren pastures with all the grass gone.

"Livestock eat out all the pastures. And the traditional husbandry now enters its final stage," evaluates the situation Dr. A. Enkh Amgalan, director of the Strategic Research Center. 

He points out that the overall pasture reserve is 118 million hectares or 76 % of the country and which can support approximately 63 million sheep. Meantime, the number of livestock reached 33.5 millions which effectively equals 66.2 million sheep. In other words, the available pastures are practically exhausted.

Animals need watering 3-4 times a week and it takes hours of hard work to produce enough water from frozen well.

In addition, about a third of pastures are not being used because of water sources shortage, putting additional pressure on the remaining 70% of pastures. In one decade of economic reforms only one in five wells remained operational out of total 24.600 built during previous 40 years.

A recent survey by the Institute of Geological and Ecological Studies of the Academy of Sciences conducted in Dund Gobi province shows that animals get 200 kg of vegetation instead of 470 kg needed for normal growth.

The record growth of livestock from 26 to 33 million heads presented by politicians as a success of the market economy, turned to be no more than a myth.

Why the ecological balance maintained over centuries has been disrupted, within a decade, to a degree of becoming a major ecological, social and economic crisis affecting the wellbeing of the whole society? Crisis that signals the end for the pastoral nomadism which was around ever since the man domesticated animals.

Market economy and nomads
The husbandry sector accounts for a third (other estimations are that of a half) of the country's $ 1.0 billion GDP. Cashmere, hides and meat products make the second largest source of foreign cash revenue after the export of copper concentrate from the Erdenet ore dressing plant, one of the biggest in Asia. 

Total of 187.100 families are engaged in husbandry with 86% of them having less than 200 animals and earning only about US$ 400-500 a year.

Experts like Dr.Ts Altanbat from the Academy of Agriculture, estimate that this amount covers only half of the living expenses, with the rest coming from occasional jobs, pensions and social allowances. His research showed that herders pay extra money for transportation costs of basic products such as flour, tea and salt and middleman commission. Most of families borrow heavily from relatives and neighbors to make ends meet, study showed. 

According to official statistics, every fourth family still uses candles, 97% do not have means of communication, only one TV set per five, and one radio receiver among three families. Only one in ten families owns a car.

It can be said that within the last decade none of the existing socio-economic problems in rural areas was solved.

"This sad situation of husbandry results from a naive perception that it will be enough to privatize livestock and liberalize prices to shift to market economy," says Enkh Amgalan. "Even today no a comprehensive development program for husbandry sector has been elaborated. Herders were simply abandoned to survive as they could."

Nowadays, almost 200,000 small producers, all the particles of once omnipotent state husbandry system, struggle to survive. 

"After livestock privatization in 1991, they had three options: 1) to increase the numbers, 2) to improve quality and 3) to developed primary processing to get better value," says Enkh Amgalan. 

Most herders chose the easiest way of growing the numbers rather than quality, especially when the spirit "get rich quickly" dominated under the newly shaping market economy. 

For example, raw cashmere commands high price while hides, skins and wool brings much less revenues. That is why the record, nine million growth of the animals' number falls on goat herd's increase.

Herders escaping from the White Death go hundreds kilometers away in search of pastures, but there is none.

Following the state farms' collapse, the veterinary and centralized transportation network also disintegrated contributing to the overall crisis of the husbandry sector. 

Traditional respect towards the nature and rational use of resources were the basis for the nomadic pastoralism which existed only by strict maintenance of the fragile balance between the human being consumption and the renewal of natural resources. 

Every herder knew well when and for how long to pasture animals, cared for the quality of their herds. But for the time being, the lack of well thought state program of reforming the agriculture and husbandry to the market economy realities forced herders to abandon their traditions.

With every passing day the situation deteriorates as the country remains buried under a thick snow blanket, and the losses of animals grow fast. The government seeks again international aid and pledging citizens to donate money and goods. 

But the past experience shows generous assistance and whatever big projects will not solve the problem of adjusting the nomadic lifestyle and traditions to the harsh realities of market economy. 

Will Mongolian steppe nomads fit into the new millenium or disappear taking away their unique culture? Is it possible to preserve the nomadic lifestyle under new realities?
 

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