Hundreds displaced citing landslide hazards
Tibetan villagers are caught in between choices that deprive them of sustainable livelihoods
The Chinese government has ordered the relocation of hundreds of Tibetan families citing landslide hazards, according to information received by our research partner Tibet Watch.
In late October this year, the Chinese government ordered the relocation of half the total households of Yarka (ཡར་ཀ་སྡེ་བ།) and Betsang villages (བིས་ཚང་སྡེ་བ།) from the upper slopes and base of the sacred mountain of Amey Ratoe (ཨ་མྱེས་ར་སྟོད།).
Yarka village is one of the 22 semi-nomadic villages in Karang Township (ཀ་རིང་ཞང་།) , and has around 200 households. Betsang village has over 100 households.
Ninety percent of them are farmers with abundant agricultural produce, growing mainly grain crops such as wheat, barley, peas, as well as buckwheat and oilseed crops.
The families have been given only two options: either accept a government subsidy of 150,000 Chinese yuan per household, or move into one of the government-built houses at Yaze County town. Those choosing subsidy had no new homes and neither was it sufficient to buy land and construct a house. Others who chose to move to a government-built house had no money. In both cases, the families no longer have their farmland to re-establish a sustainable livelihood.
Sources believe the landslide hazard may be a pretext for mining, and informed Tibet Watch that scientific investigations and exploratory activities at the sacred mountain had been carried out over the past few years. It remains unknown what mineral deposits had been identified in the mountain.
Some households from Yarka village had already been moved into the state-built houses at Yaze County town whilst others reluctant to leave are not being allowed to stay in their ancestral land.
The sacred mountain of Amey Ratoe is in Karang Township (ཀ་རིང་ཞང་།), Yaze County (ཡ་རྫི་རྫོང་། Xinhua), Tsoshar Prefecture of the Amdo region.
