#damchok

Some traditional grazing land is lost to China each year, Sonam Tsering of the All Changtang Pashmina Growers Cooperative Marketing Society said. But this year, even the main winter grazing areas near KakJung, Tum Tselay, Chumar, Damchok and Korzok are out of bounds amid the heightened tensions, he added. "It's devastating. The PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] used to encroach into our side by the metres, but this time they have come inside several kilometres," said Jurmet, a former elected official with only one name. "It was breeding season for the goats. Around 85 percent of their newborns died this year because large herds were pushed out into the cold from the grazing lands [in February]," he told AFP over the phone from Leh, the region's capital city.