(Bayanmunkh Sum) In Mongolia, although accustomed to polar temperatures, a particularly harsh winter this year decimated two million livestock and put shepherds on the brink, now deprived of their main means of subsistence.
Mongolia, landlocked between China and Russia, extends over a vast territory three times the size of France and made up of mountains and hilly plateaus.
Temperatures in winter can drop to -50°C in places.
But extreme cold coupled with the heaviest snowfall in the country since 1975 have created unlivable conditions for the livestock of Mongolia’s nomads this year.
They represent around a third of the country’s population of almost 3.3 million.
“The winter began with heavy snowfall, but it melted due to a sudden rise in temperatures,” one of them, Tuvshinbayar Byambaa, told AFP.
“Then the temperatures dropped again and the melted snow turned into ice” so thick that it deprived the animals of access to food deeper, laments Tuvshinbayar Byambaa.
Result: frozen carcasses of animals that died of starvation piled up in the steppe.
Devastating “Dzud”
The Mongolian government estimates their number at more than two million animals, a figure expected to increase with the extension of winter until April according to a United Nations report. At the end of 2023, Mongolia had 64.7 million heads, including sheep, goats, horses and cows, according to official data.
This devastating natural phenomenon that makes grass inaccessible to livestock is known as “dzud”.
Characterized by an extremely harsh winter and heavy snowfall, the “dzud” usually occurs about once every twelve years, but this phenomenon appears to be occurring much more frequently now, due to climate change, the United Nations says.
Six dzuds have already hit the country in the past ten years, including in the winter of 2022-2023 when 4.4 million animals died of starvation.
But the phenomenon was exacerbated this winter by a summer drought which made pastures scarce last summer and prevented animals from feeding sufficiently to then withstand the harsh winters.
“Pray for warmer weather”
According to the UN, 70% of Mongolia’s territory is currently affected by a “dzud” or approaching the characteristic climate of a dzud.
However, at the same time in 2023, this figure stood at 17%.
In the steppe, the ice that prevents animals from accessing grass leaves herders with no choice but to go into debt to buy food for their livestock.
But nomadic herders stranded by the snow find themselves trapped in particularly cold areas and cannot get to the towns where pasture can be bought.
“The weather changes are so sudden lately,” laments Tuvshinbayar Byambaa.
“It is becoming too difficult to be a breeder,” believes the shepherd. “In summer we suffer from drought and floods. Then comes winter and dzud.”
The Mongolian government has promised to help herders by distributing hay to avoid further losses.
Like Tuvshinbayar Byambaa, the nomads pray for warmer weather to put an end to this climatic phenomenon.
“All the breeders are praying that warmer weather will melt this ice and our animals will reach grass,” says Tuvshinbayar Byambaa.
“I will lose my animals if the snow does not melt in the coming months,” he warns.
During the winter of 2010-2011, a devastating “dzud” killed more than 10 million animals, or at the time almost a quarter of Mongolia’s total livestock.