Sikkim holds first Himalayan Yak Festival in Gnathang Valley

Sikkim held its first Himalayan Yak Festival in Gnathang Valley, a high-altitude settlement on the Old Silk Route near the India-China border, bringing herders, scientists and officials together to discuss the future of yak rearing.

The festival, at about 13,500 feet, was organised by the state's Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Sikkim Inspires and the G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment. Assembly Speaker M.N. Sherpa inaugurated it.

Sikkimese Yak becomes a registered breed

The highlight was the formal recognition of the Sikkimese Yak as a registered breed by the ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources. Registration documents the animal's distinct genetic identity, which helps conservation and breeding programmes.

Sikkim has about 5,300 yaks, out of an estimated 58,000 across India's Himalayan regions, according to figures shared at the event. Sherpa voiced concern about the falling numbers of both yaks and herders.

New products and a tree-planting link

Organisers launched a "One Calf, Nine Trees" initiative that ties yak rearing to ecological restoration. The Sikkim Livestock Development Board showed commercial prototypes of A2 Siri ghee and churpi, the hard yak-milk cheese, as part of a push for value-added products that could raise herders' incomes.

Herders' worries

Thupden Lachungpa, president of the Yak Association of Sikkim, described yaks as vital to high-altitude grasslands and said the population, though improving, remains low. Herder Gnawang Phuntsok, whose family has kept yaks for five generations, said sudden snowfall and untimely rain now upset the seasonal moves between pastures that herding depends on.

Passang Tshering Bhutia, an assistant director in the Animal Husbandry Department who has worked with herders since 1988, estimated that around 40 per cent of grazing land had been lost or degraded, and said younger people are increasingly leaving herding for other jobs.

Representatives from Ladakh, including Lobzang Dadul of the Yak Herders Association of Ladakh, called for Himalayan states to work together on conservation and on better prices for yak milk, dairy and fibre.

Local MLA Pamin Lepcha said around 400 to 500 yaks were brought to the festival and that she hoped it would become an annual event.