The chief occupation of yak farming in the Himalayan ( high mountain) belt is gradually going to be extinct for various reasons. Yak farmers, who raise yaks in the Himalayan regions, complain that yaks are dying due to lack of medicine. They complain that livestock technicians never visit the yak herds which are located at long distances from Livestock Development Office and Service Centres.
Nak and Dimjo are also vanishing and yak farmers in Nepal possess only Urad breed of yak. Another important hurdle faced by yak farmers is lack of grazing land. The government forest is gradually being handed over to the community as community forest.
Yak farmers buy yaks from Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It takes four days' walk from the border to reach the Tibetan yak herds. Farmers reach there walking in the waist-deep snow in autumn season and bring Tibetan yaks bearing great risk and hardship.
There is a stiff competition in registering big pasture land as community forest due to the race for medicinal herbs found there. Once they are handed over to the community, they enforce their own rules. As a result of this, yak farming is in crisis.
Although a few families depend on yaks for their livelihood, technicians hold the view that yak farming needs to be boosted for the utilisation of high mountain pasture land and its products. A total of 140 million hectares of land has been covered by high mountain area in Asia. This land should be utilised for yak farming to achieve economic upliftment. In 1993 approximately 60 thousand yaks lived in Nepal supporting the 28 thousand families of farmers, but the number has declined now. Yaks die in significant number due to lack of treatment, labour complications and falling. |