Parting 

Nature and fauna of Tibet. Animals of Tibet are interesting and rare representatives of this region. Nuclear and toxic waste

Hello, dear readers - seekers of knowledge and truth!

Tibet is an amazing place. An interesting and sometimes sad history, placer, caves, the highest mountain peaks of the Himalayas, dozens of different nationalities make this area unique. But a separate interesting topic is the animals of Tibet.

Today we want to introduce you to the fauna of the Tibetan expanses. The article below will tell you what animals you can meet on a trip to Tibet, how they differ from their relatives living in our area, and what danger threatens them today.

We are sure that today you will discover something new for yourself.

Diversity of the animal world

Tibet has a rather harsh climate. In summer, the average daily temperature here is 5-15 degrees Celsius, while in winter the thermometer drops below zero, and the cold can reach -20 degrees. However, there is little precipitation throughout the year.

Such a climate naturally affects the flora and fauna. The Tibetan expanses are mostly located in the highlands of the Himalayas or at the foot of the mountains, on the soil of which it is difficult to grow a large number of crops.

That is why Tibetans are mainly engaged in animal husbandry. They have long known what the "domestication" of animals is.

70 percent of all Tibetan land is occupied by pastures, where huge herds are constantly movingdomesticanimals.

The locals are very careful about our smaller brothers, so they managed to keep such types of beasts of burden, which are considered rare in our time:

  • two-humped camel;
  • Przewalski's horse;
  • Kulan is a wild Asian donkey.


Kulan (wild donkey)

In addition, goats and sheep graze on pastures. Such animals are unpretentious in food and are able to withstand even significant temperature fluctuations.

The attitude of Tibetans towards animals was influenced, which prescribes to take care of all living things, not to cause harm, to abandon excesses in the use of meat. In the middle of the 17th century, the 5th Dalai Lama issued a special decree protecting animals andnaturewhich Tibetans still observe to this day.

Walking through the steppes of Tibet, you can immediately notice the small holes of small mammals: hares, marmots, ground squirrels, jerboas, ferrets, voles, gerbils, ermines and pikas - cute little rodents that look like a cross between a hamster and a hare.

Of the predators in Tibet, there are plain gray wolves and mountain red wolves, lynxes, Tibetan foxes, a pischal bear, and leopards are still very rare. Bamboo-eating pandas are found only in the western Tibetan expanse.


Tibetan fox

But most of all, ungulates live here, which feel great in the hilly area.

These include:

  • Tibetan gazelle;
  • white-lipped deer;
  • lama;
  • kulan
  • kiang - a cross between a kulan and a horse;
  • Mountain sheep;
  • orongo antelope;
  • hell antelope;
  • bharal - wild sheep;
  • musk deer - a deer-like artiodactyl;
  • takin - a strong man, similar to a bull, but larger in size.


Kiang

A lot of representatives of the animal world and birds. Some of them, for example, crows, live near dwellings, often causing considerable damage to the household.

Others are considered scavengers, and huge flocks of them can be seen when other animals die. These include Himalayan vultures, snow vultures, also known as "kumai".

According to Tibetan beliefs, kumai helps a person after death, freeing him from the physical body and seeing him off to heaven.

Cranes, ibis, red ducks settled near the water and in the swampy area, snowcocks, finches, Tibetan saji settled in the steppes.

Unknown little animals

As you can see, the fauna of Tibet is striking in its diversity. At the same time, some animals seem so familiar and familiar, while others have only been heard of by many. We want to introduce you closer to some of the amazing inhabitants of the Tibetan expanses.

This is a large animal from the mammalian family, similar to bulls and bison. In length, wild yaks can be more than four meters, and in height - more than two.

Domestic yaks are slightly smaller in size. Strong and hardy, with short powerful legs, they are able to carry multi-kilogram loads.


Yaks are now known in many countries, but it is believed that they come from Tibet - here they appeared about ten thousand years ago. In the highlands, yaks feel great: in winter they live at an altitude of 4 thousand meters, and in summer they rise even higher - by 6 thousand meters. They do this because at temperatures above +15 they begin to experience overheating, and the higher in the mountains, the cooler.

A yak in the economy is a great wealth. In addition to helping to carry heavy loads, yaks are used for meat. And their wool and skin is used for different purposes. It is made from:

  • yarn;
  • fabric for clothes;
  • ropes;
  • harness;
  • souvenirs.

The cost of yaks on the farm is practically zero - they protect themselves from the cold and enemies, they themselves get food.

musk deer

This is a small artiodactyl animal similar to a deer, but smaller in size. In length, it reaches only about a meter, in height - 70 centimeters, the tail is very short - about five centimeters. But the main thing that distinguishes them from deer is the absence of horns.


Musk deer are amazingly jumpy - they can climb trees and jump from branch to branch to a height of four meters. Fleeing from predators, she, like a hare, covers her tracks.

The main jewel of the musk deer is the musk gland in males on the stomach. One such gland contains ten to twenty grams of musk. This is the most expensive product of animal origin - it is used in medicine and especially in perfumery.

Takin

Takin also refers to artiodactyls. At the withers, it reaches a meter, and its length is about one and a half meters. For its size, it is very massive - more than 300 kilograms.


At the same time, the takin's movements may seem clumsy from the outside. He lives in bamboo mountain forests at an altitude of four kilometers. But in winter, when there is not enough food, it goes down to a mark of up to 2.5 kilometers.

Orongo

Orongo is often called antelope, but in fact they are also close to saigas and goats. Their dimensions are 1.2-1.3 meters in length and about a meter in height, and they weigh only about 30 kilograms.


In the mornings and evenings, the orongo can be seen grazing in the steppes, and day and night, when cold winds are blowing, they hide in special pits. They dig these holes themselves with the hooves of their front legs.

In 2006, a railway was built in Lhasa, which passes just through the habitats of orongo. In order not to disturb the animals, 33 passes were specially built for their movements.

Zou is an unusual domestic animal obtained by crossing a cow and a yak. In Mongolia it is known as hainak, and in Tibet and Nepal it is known as dzo.


Genetics really work wonders: zo is stronger than ordinary cows, and they also give much more milk. Zo bulls cannot have offspring, therefore, by crossing with ordinary bulls, zo cows give birth to calves that are only one-fourth yak - they are called "ortum".

Many animals of Tibet are in danger - thirty species are already included in the Red Book. Among them are already known to us musk deer, takin, orongo. The situation is complicated by the fact that for thousands of dollars, rich tourists can even hunt for endangered species.

Conclusion

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And boundless Tibet spread around. This hilly plateau, raised by 4500-5500 meters, larger than Western Europe and bounded by the highest mountains in the world, seemed to be specially created in the event of the Flood in the form of an “Eternal Continent”. Here it was possible to escape from the impending wave and sweeping away everything in its path, but it was problematic to survive.

Rare grass covered the ground, but at an altitude of more than 5000 meters it disappeared. Blades of grass grew at a distance of 20-40 cm DR5T from each other; it was amazing that such a large animal as a yak is able to feed itself here. But the Great Creator foresaw this possibility as well.



And in the parts of the plateau located above 5000 meters, one could see only rusty moss and stones.




Everywhere and everywhere in Tibet one could see beautiful mountain peaks. They seemed quite small, but we knew that their absolute height was 6000-7000 meters above sea level. Willy-nilly, I peered into the details of each of these Tibetan peaks, trying to see people there - the words of Nicholas Roerich that sometimes strange people are seen on impregnable Tibetan peaks, who knows how they got there, did not give me peace. I remembered the stories of the Himalayan yogis about the superhumans of Shambhala and knew that they live right here in Tibet. But I did not manage to see strange people; only appeared a few times.



Hilly places gave way to absolutely flat areas. The inflamed imagination immediately drew here an airport where planes could land and bring people so that they could bow to the citadel of mankind on Earth - Mount Kailash. Our main earthly homeland - "Eternal Continent" - deserved it. But I knew that at such a height the planes could not land and take off - the air was too rarefied.




In such flat areas, we liked to stop for a bite to eat. Something gentle blew from this land, and we, sitting on the ground, gently stroked and patted it - the word “citadel” embedded in the subconscious mind influenced us through the millennia. The supply manager, Sergei Anatolyevich Seliverstov, took out chocolate, nuts, raisins, biscuits, water from a food bag, but he did not want to eat. We drank water, but hardly stuffed food into our mouths. We implicitly understood that we did not want to live here normally, we wanted to ... survive, as our distant - Distant ancestors did.

The further we moved to the northwest, the more sand became. Soon beautiful dunes appeared. We ran out of the car and, like children, threw sand at each other. And then the sand began to show its "charms". First of all, these were dust storms, which were accompanied by lightning discharges without rain. Such storms not only pressed a person to the ground and covered him with sand, but also stopped the car.


Probably, Tibetan Babylon was covered with such dunes - I thought.




And the storms came one after another.

But the most unpleasant thing was that stones appeared in the nose, or, as they say in the folk language, stone goats. The fact is that due to the influence of high mountains, an ichor was released from the nasal mucosa, on which fine sand adhered, which gradually seemed to turn to stone. Pulling out these stone goats that clogged the entire nose was a real punishment. In addition, after the removal of the intranasal stone, there was blood, on which sand again adhered, which had a tendency to stony.

Rafael Yusupov spent most of his time in the area of ​​the dunes in a special gauze mask, frightening not only Tibetans, but also us with his appearance. He was so used to being in a mask that he even smoked through it. True, he picked out stone goats from his nose no less than us.




He, Rafael Yusupov, constantly taught us to breathe in the highlands. When we went to bed, we had a fear of suffocation, because of which we breathed heavily all night, afraid to fall asleep.



A sufficient amount of carbon dioxide must accumulate in the blood so that it irritates the respiratory center and transfers the act of breathing to a reflex-unconscious version. And you, fools, with your strained conscious breathing knock down the reflex function of the respiratory center. You have to endure until you suffocate, - he lectured us.

The first association that arises with the nature of Tibet is the mountains, the Himalayas, the top of the world. And yes, they are majestic, they are beautiful, I will never forget the feeling when I first saw Everest from the window of an airplane, or rather, its peak, hovering above the clouds. It didn’t fit in my head, how it was, but some people stood with their feet in the sky!

And I sincerely admire those who decided on this adventure, although I consider them exactly as crazy. I will definitely write about Everest a little further, but I want to start with the lakes.
I was not embarrassed by the fact that the map of Tibet is full of blue spots, and somehow I was especially struck by the following, which opened my eyes already on approaching the Lhasa airport. The lakes here are absolutely amazing - huge, of an unearthly deep color, and each one is completely special.

The first lake with which we had a chance to wash ourselves was Yamdrok Tso, this was the very beginning of the expedition, when we passed our first five thousandth pass and descended a little to a height of 4650 meters.
Also called Yamjo Yumtso, the turquoise lake, it is believed that it constantly changes its color, and its shades cannot be seen twice. I am very inclined to agree with this legend.
And no lens, no matter how hard the photographer tries, will convey this depth and richness of colors. The lake is considered sacred, Koru also walk around it, and according to legend, if it dries up, then life in Tibet will disappear. On one of the banks of Yamdrok Tso is the only monastery in the country where the abbess is a woman.

The next lake, on the shore of which we lived, and in which even some desperate women swam (I confess, I limited myself to getting my feet wet) is Manasarovar.
The legendary "living" lake in which Parvati lives, the wife of Shiva, and from where we first saw Kailash.
It is said that the water from it washes away sins.
Buddhists drink it, and Hindus prefer to bathe.
One of the most famous monasteries, Chiu Gompa, rises above the lake; Padmasambhava spent some time here in meditation.

Nearby is the second no less sacred lake - Rakshas Tal, "dead".
It is considered as such due to the fact that in its waters there are neither fish nor algae, but all because of the high content of silver. According to legend, the lake was created by the leader of the Rakshasas, the demon Ravana, and on an island in the middle of the lake, he sacrificed his heads to Shiva every day, when he had one head left, Shiva took pity and rewarded him with superpowers.
The place is considered important for the Tantrics, as a very strong energy center.
Ablutions in the lake are performed in order to leave everything old in it and reset to zero, but you can’t drink water, supposedly you will be poisoned. Well, legends are legends, but for some reason I wanted to take a sip of water here. Firstly, it was not poisoned, and secondly, it is delicious. And I decided for myself that in this way I kill my fears and worries with dead water, in the end, we create all our beliefs ourselves.

Between the lakes there is a natural channel 10 kilometers long, and when it is filled with water, it is believed that there is a balance throughout the world. As you understand, this natural phenomenon has not been observed for a long time.

We passed another large lake - Peiku Tso on the way to the Everest base camp.
Yes, by the way, on the shores of all lakes you can often find such pyramids of stones. They are folded locally so that the soul of the dead, while it is in purgatory, feels good, or something like that.

Well, in the end, I can’t help but show what, probably, all climbers strive for in their souls - the roof of the world. Somewhere near the village of Tingri there are several observation platforms that offer a view of Everest and the nearby eight-thousanders.
Seeing the sunrise there is priceless! And yes, Shiva and Buddha clearly favored us, because they showed all the mountains, even those clouds that strove to close them at some moments dispersed in a matter of minutes.
And the last point, after which we began to descend, was the base camp of Everest.
They say that it is especially beautiful from the side of Tibet, of course, to be convinced of this, you need to take another look at it from the side of Nepal. September is not the season, and the camp is empty, so we could see enough and shoot this great mountain from all angles available to us.
And yes, it is breathtaking, and you understand how insignificant you, a person, are in comparison with nature.
And just tears well up from the realization that you at least a little managed to touch this legend, well, let's not touch, but at least look with your own eyes, and not in photographs. That morning, one of us uttered the key phrase:
Moments like this are worth living for.

  • Read: Asia

Tibet: physical geography, nature, people

Tibet is the largest, highest and youngest mountain plateau in the world. Therefore, Tibet is called the "roof of the world" and the "third pole".

Geographically, Tibet can be divided into three main regions - east, north and south. The eastern part is a wooded area that occupies approximately one quarter of the territory. Virgin forests stretch across this part of Tibet. The northern part is open plains where nomads graze yaks and sheep. This part occupies about half of Tibet. The southern and central part is an agricultural region that occupies about one-fourth of the land area of ​​Tibet. With all major Tibetan cities and towns such as Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse located in the Tsetang region, this region is considered the cultural center of Tibet. The total area of ​​the Tibet Autonomous Region is 1,200,000 square kilometers and the population is 1,890,000 people.

The number one mountain peak on Earth is Mount Everest, which is 8,848.13 meters high. This is a silver peak that sends out a silvery glow year after year. Its narrowest part is hidden in the clouds. Among the 14 peaks, whose height is more than 8,000 meters, 5 are located on the territory of Tibet. In addition to Everest, these are the peaks of Luozi, Makalu, Zhuoayou, Xixiabangma and Nanjiabawa, which constantly compete with Everest for the championship in height.

Many people have a misconception about the nature of Tibet as a permanently snowy land. Its old name - "the land of snow" - is the name by which it is actually known throughout the world and which gives an idea of ​​the country as a territory of almost permafrost with barely perceptible signs of life. In fact, this is how it is, but only in areas located in Ima, Tisi and the like. This mountain range, which covers almost the entire country, and its high peaks, up to the bluest skies, are covered with snow.

In other flat areas, in fact, it only snows a few times a year, and due to the constant very bright sunlight during the day, it is not cold there even in the most severe winters. Tibet is so sunny that there are more than 3,000 hours of constant sunshine throughout the year.

Tibet is full of rivers and lakes, the densely overgrown banks of which are home to numerous swans, geese and ducks.

The Yaluzangbu River is 2,057 km long and consists of continuous twists and turns, winding like a silver dragon from west to east into the valleys of southern Tibet, and then flows into the Indian Ocean.

Three rivers flow in the east of Tibet: Gold Sand, Lancang and the Nu River. They all flow from north to south, to Yunnan Province. This area is popular due to the beautiful scenery of Hengduan Mountain.

Holy Lake or Lake Manasovara is located 30 km southeast of Mount Holi. Its area is about 400 square kilometers. Buddhists believe that the lake is a gift from Heaven. Holy water can cure all kinds of diseases, and if you wash yourself with it, then all their worries and worries are washed away from people. Pilgrimages are even made to the lake, after walking around the lake and taking a bath in turn at the four gates, the cleansing of sins takes place and the gods grant you happiness. The great monk Xuan Zhuang called this lake the "Holy Lake in Western Heaven".

The area of ​​another Yangzongyong lake is 638 square meters. km, and the length of the coastline is 250 km. The deepest place is at a depth of 60 meters. The lake has more natural food for fish. It is estimated that the lake has a fish stock of approximately 300 million kg. That is why this lake is called the "fish treasure of Tibet". Many water birds live in its open spaces and along the banks.

Lake Namu area - 1940 sq. km, it is the second largest lake with salt water. On the surface of the island rise 3 islands, which are the ideal habitat for all kinds of aquatic life.

Introduction

Tibet is the main source of the great rivers of Asia. Tibet is high mountains, as well as the most extensive and highest plateau in the world, ancient forests and many deep valleys untouched by human activity.

The traditional economic and religious value system of Tibet has led to the development of environmentally friendly practices. According to the Buddhist teachings about the correct way of life followed by the Tibetans, "moderation" is important, the refusal to overconsume and overexploit natural resources, because it is believed that this causes harm to living beings and their ecology. As early as 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama issued the Decree for the Protection of Animals and Nature. Since then, such decrees have been issued annually.

With the colonization of Tibet by Communist China, the traditional Tibetan environmental protection system was destroyed, leading to human destruction of nature on a horrific scale. This is especially evident in the state of pastures, arable lands, forests, water and animal life.


Pastures, fields and agricultural policy in China

70% of the territory of Tibet is pasture. They are the basis of the country's agrarian economy, in which livestock plays a leading role. The total number of livestock is 70 million heads per one million pastoralists.

Over the centuries, Tibetan nomads have adapted well to working in the unsteady mountain pastures. The Tibetans have developed a certain culture of pastoralism: constant accounting of the use of pastures, responsibility for their ecological safety, systematic movement of herds of yaks, sheep, goats.

Over the past four decades, many pastures have ceased to exist. The transfer of such lands for the use of Chinese settlers led to significant desertification of the lands, turning them into territories unsuitable for agriculture. Especially large desertification of pastures occurred in Amdo.

The situation was further worsened by the fencing of pastures, when Tibetan pastoralists were further restricted in space and deprived of their ability to roam with herds from place to place, as they used to do. Only in the Maghu district of the Amdo region, one third of all land of more than ten thousand square kilometers was fenced off for herds of horses, herds of sheep and cattle belonging to the Chinese army. And at the same time, the best pastures in the Ngapa, Golok and Qinghai provinces were given to the Chinese. The main arable lands of the Tibetans are the river valleys in Kham, the Tsangpo valley in U-Tsang, and the Machhu valley in Amdo. The main grain crop grown by the Tibetans is barley, with additional cereals and legumes. The traditional agricultural culture of the Tibetans includes: the use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, mixed planting, resting the land under fallow, which is necessary to conserve the land that is part of the sensitive mountain ecosystems. The average grain harvest in U-Tsang is two thousand kilograms per hectare and even higher in the fertile valleys of Amdo and Kham. This exceeds the harvest in countries with similar climatic conditions. For example, in Russia the average grain yield is 1700 kg per hectare, while in Canada it is 1800.

Maintaining an ever-increasing number of Chinese military, civilian personnel, settlers, and exporting agricultural products has led to the expansion of cropland through the use of mountain slopes and marginal soils, to an increase in the area under wheat (which the Chinese prefer to Tibetan barley), to the use of hybrid seeds, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Diseases constantly attacked new varieties of wheat, and in 1979 the entire wheat crop died. Before the Chinese began to migrate to Tibet by the millions, there was never a need for a significant increase in agricultural production.


Forests and their deforestation

In 1949, the ancient forests of Tibet covered 221,800 km2. By 1985, almost half of this remained - 134 thousand km2. Most of the forests grow on the slopes of the mountains, in the river valleys of the southern, lowest, part of Tibet. The main types of forests are tropical and subtropical coniferous forests with spruce, fir, pine, larch, cypress; mixed with the main forest there are birch and oak. Trees grow at altitudes up to 3800 meters in the humid southern region and up to 4300 meters in the semi-dry northern region. Tibetan forests consist predominantly of old trees over 200 years old. The density of forests is 242 m3 per hectare, although in U-Tsang the density of old forests has reached 2300 m3 per hectare. This is the highest density for conifers.

The emergence of roads in remote parts of Tibet has led to an increase in deforestation. It should be noted that the roads are built either by the PLA or with the help of the engineering teams of the Ministry of Forestry of China, and the cost of their construction is considered as an expense for the "development" of Tibet. As a result, ancient forests became accessible. The main method of logging is a simple felling, which has led to significant exposure of the hillsides. The volume of logging before 1985 amounted to 2 million 442 thousand m2, or 40% of the total forest volume in 1949, worth 54 billion US dollars.

Logging is the main area of ​​employment today for the population in Tibet: in the Kongpo "TAR" region alone, more than 20,000 Chinese soldiers and prisoners were employed in felling and transporting timber. In 1949, 2.2 million hectares of land were forested in the Ngapa region of Amdo. And forest resources amounted to 340 million m3. In 1980, the forest area decreased to 1.17 million km2 with a resource of 180 million m3. At the same time, until 1985, China mined 6.44 million m3 of timber in the Kanlho Tibet Autonomous Prefecture. If these timber, 30 cm in diameter and three meters long, are laid out in one line, then it is possible to circle the globe twice.
Further devastation and destruction of the ecology of the Tibetan Plateau, the most unique place on earth, continues.

Natural and artificial reforestation is on a small scale due to the peculiarities of the region's topography, land and humidity, as well as high temperature fluctuations during the day and high temperatures on the soil surface. In such environmental conditions, the destructive consequences of clear-cutting forests are irreparable.

Water resources and river energy

Tibet is the main watershed of Asia and the source of its major rivers. The main part of the rivers of Tibet is stable. As a rule, they flow from underground sources or are collected from glaciers. The rivers in most neighboring countries depend on the amount of rainfall at different times of the year.
90% of the length of rivers born in Tibet is used outside of it, and less than 1% of the total length of rivers can be used in Tibet. Today the rivers of Tibet have the highest sedimentary rates. Machhu (Huang He or Yellow River), Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), Drighu (Yangtze) and Senge Khabab (Indus) are the five most muddy rivers in the world. The total area irrigated by these rivers, if we take the territory from the Machhu basin in the east to the Senge Khabab basin in the west, accounts for 47% of the world's population. There are two thousand lakes in Tibet. Some of them are considered sacred or occupy a special place in the life of the people. Their total area is 35 thousand km2.

The steep slopes and powerful torrents of the Tibetan rivers have a potential operating energy of 250,000 megawatts. The TAR rivers alone have 200,000 megawatts of potential energy.

Tibet ranks second in the world in potential solar energy after the Sahara desert. The average annual figure is 200 kilocalories per centimeter of surface. The geothermal resources of the Tibetan land are also significant. Despite the presence of such a significant potential of small environmentally friendly sources, the Chinese have built huge dams, such as Longyang Xi, and continue to build them, such as the Yamdrok Yutso hydroelectric station.

Many of these projects are designed to harness the hydro potential of the Tibetan rivers to provide energy and other benefits to industry and the Chinese population in Tibet and in China itself. But the ecological, cultural and human tribute for these projects will be taken from the Tibetans. While Tibetans are driven from their lands and from their homes, tens of thousands of Chinese workers are coming from China to build and operate these power plants. These dams are not needed by the Tibetans, they did not ask for them to be built. Take, for example, the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Yamdrok Yutso. The Chinese said that this construction would bring great benefits to the Tibetans. The Tibetans and their leaders, the late Panchen Lama and Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, resisted and delayed construction for several years. However, the Chinese did start construction, and today 1,500 PLA ​​soldiers guard the construction and prevent civilians from being near it.

Minerals and mining

According to official Chinese sources, Tibet has deposits of 126 minerals, holding a large part of the world's reserves of lithium, chromium, copper, borax and iron. The oil fields in Amdo produce more than one million tons of crude oil per year.

The network of roads and communications built by the Chinese in Tibet reflects the pattern of timber and minerals that are indiscriminately mined at the behest of the Chinese government. With seven of China's own 15 key minerals to be mined within this decade, and with the major iron-free mineral reserves virtually depleted, Tibet's mineral production is on the rise. It is assumed that by the end of this century, China plans to carry out its main mining operations in Tibet. In places where minerals are mined, nothing is done to protect the environment. Especially where the soil is unstable, the lack of environmental protection measures results in destabilization of the landscape, destruction of the fertile layer, and danger to human health and life.


Animal world

Many animals and birds have disappeared due to the destruction of their habitats, as well as because of the sports passion of hunters and because of the revival of the illegal trade in wild animals and birds. There is much evidence that Chinese soldiers use machine guns to shoot herds of wild yaks and donkeys out of a sporting passion.

Unlimited destruction of wild animals continues today. Rare animal hunting "tours" organized for wealthy foreigners are regularly advertised in the Chinese media. For example, "hunting tours" are offered for wealthy athletes from the US and Europe. These "hunters" can kill such rare animals as Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni), argali sheep (Ovis ammon hodgsoni), species that should obviously be under state protection. Hunting for the Tibetan antelope costs 35 thousand US dollars, for the Argali sheep - 23 thousand, for the white-lipped fallow deer (Cervus albirostris) - 13 thousand, for the blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) - 7900, for the red fallow deer (Cerrus elaphus) - 3500. Such " tourism" will lead to the irretrievable loss of many Tibetan animal species before they can be discovered and studied. In addition, this poses an obvious threat to the conservation of animal species that are of great importance for the culture of Tibet and of great value to civilization.

The White Paper admits that a large number of animals are on the "brink of extinction". At the same time, the "Red List of Rare Animal Species" of 1990 of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature contains thirty species of animals living in Tibet.

Measures to preserve the fauna of Tibet, excluding areas that became part of the Chinese provinces, were taken long after such measures were introduced in China itself. It was said that the areas that fell under the protection of the state in 1991, in general, occupy 310 thousand km2, which is 12% of the territory of Tibet. The effectiveness of the protection cannot be determined due to the severely restricted access to these areas, as well as the secrecy of the actual data.

Nuclear and toxic waste

According to the Chinese government, there are approximately 90 nuclear warheads in Tibet. And according to the "Ninth Academy" - the China Northwest Academy for the Development and Creation of Nuclear Weapons, located in the northeastern part of Tibet - Amdo, the Tibetan plateau is contaminated with an unknown amount of radioactive waste.

According to a report prepared by the International Movement for the Protection of Tibet, a Washington-based organization: "The disposal of the waste was carried out with extremely dangerous methods. Initially, they were buried in unmarked folds of the terrain ... The nature and amount of radioactive waste received in the Ninth Academy is still are unknown... In the 60s and 70s, nuclear waste from technological processes was disposed of carelessly and unsystematically.Waste received at the Academy has a different form: liquid, solid and gaseous substances.Liquid and solid waste should be located in nearby lands and waters".

China's official statements have confirmed that Tibet has the largest uranium reserves in the world. There is evidence that uranium is processed in Tibet and that in Ngapa, in Amdo, there have been cases of death among local residents as a result of drinking radioactive water located near a uranium mine.

Locals also talked about the birth of ugly children and animals. Since the flow of groundwater in Amdo is now due to the rate of natural flow, and there is very little usable water (one report estimates the groundwater supply is from 340 million to four billion cubic feet - He Bochuan, pp.39), radioactive contamination this water is a major concern. Since 1976, uranium has also been mined and processed in the Thewo and Dzorg areas in Kham.
In 1991, Greenpeace revealed plans to ship toxic urban waste from the US to China to be used as "fertilizer" in Tibet. The use of toxic wastes such as fertilizer in the US itself has led to disease outbreaks.

Conclusion

Tibet's complex environmental problems cannot be reduced to external changes, such as turning patches of land into national reserves or issuing laws for citizens, while the government itself is the real environmental culprit. The political will of the Chinese leadership is needed to give the Tibetans the right to use nature themselves in the way they used to do, relying on their traditional and conservative customs.

According to the proposal of the Dalai Lama, all of Tibet should be turned into a zone of peace in which man and nature can coexist harmoniously. As the Dalai Lama said, such Tibet should become a completely demilitarized country with a democratic form of government and an economic system that would ensure the long-term use of the country's natural resources in order to maintain a good standard of living for the people.

Ultimately, this is also of long-term interest to Tibet's neighboring countries such as India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan, since Tibet's ecology will have a great impact on their nature as well. Almost half of the world's population, especially the population of these countries, depends on the condition of the rivers originating in Tibet. Some of the major floods that have occurred in these countries in the past decade are related to the sedimentation of Tibetan rivers due to deforestation. The destructive potential of these rivers is increasing every year as China continues to deforest and mine uranium on the Roof of the World.

China acknowledges the presence of "pollution in some parts of the rivers." Since river flows do not recognize political boundaries, then Tibet's neighbors have a reasonable basis to know which rivers are polluted, how badly and with what. If decisive action is not taken today to stop the threat, then the rivers of Tibet, which gave joy and life, will one day bring sorrow and death.