Ladakh’s natural resources, from glaciers and water bodies to deposits of granite and limestone, are under “rampant” commercial exploitation by outsiders while local communities have been left with little say, a fact-finding report said on Saturday.
It backed Ladakh’s demand for full statehood and constitutional protections under the Sixth Schedule, underlining the dangers of the changes to Ladakh’s demography and governance since the 2019 abrogation of Article 370.
The report is based on a September 10-14 Ladakh visit by the National Alliance of People’s Movements, Hum Bharat ke Log and Socialist Party (India).
Visiting Srinagar, Kargil and Leh, among other places, the delegates met several political and religious leaders and interacted with local people.
Members of these three groups released the report at a news conference. They also demanded the release of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and the others detained following last week’s street violence involving statehood agitators in Leh town.
“Since the unilateral dilution of Article 370 and the revocation of Article 35A in 2019, the floodgates have been opened,” the report says.
“The rich natural resources of Ladakh, from its pristine glaciers and water bodies to its vast mineral deposits of granite, limestone and even uranium have been thrown open to rampant exploitation by outside commercial interests, with local communities having little to no say in the process.”
The report says the most critical decisions about the allocation of Ladakh’s vast natural resources are now taken by authorities sitting in distant, air-conditioned offices in Delhi and Jammu, completely disconnected from the region’s ecological sensitivities and socio-cultural realities.
It claims that the centuries-old coexistence of Buddhist and Muslim populations in Ladakh is under threat from demographic change and cultural homogenisation.
It says the Union Territory, part of the fragile trans-Himalayan ecosystem, is suffering from the global climate crisis and therefore needs environmental safeguards under the Sixth Schedule.
The report underlines that the BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto had promised autonomy for Ladakh, and that the authorities’ failure to deliver on the pledge has left the people of Ladakh feeling cheated and abandoned.
“The consequences of this betrayal are not theoretical; they are already being felt in the most damaging and tangible ways,” it says. The report says that contractors from Srinagar, Jammu and Chandigarh, who have better networks with the bureaucracy, have systematically taken over the local market, marginalising Ladakhi businesses.