When everyone focused on the "Where to Go for the Elephants" in Yunnan, the season for Tibetan antelopes to migrate and give birth to the Kekexili National Nature Reserve in Qinghai, more than 2,000 kilometers away.
——This is a major local event.
For this reason, the staff of the reserve have been guarding the migration channel of Tibetan antelopes above 4,600 meters above sea level.
At an altitude of 4,479 meters, located in the Sonang Dje Protection Station by the 109 National Highway, the little Tibetan antelope about one year old didn’t know this, and was carried back with the placenta. The iconic black long horn is only the length of the middle finger. , Aegyo usually rubs the leg added by the deputy stationmaster Dragon Boat.
Such rescues happen every year.
In the beginning, Dragon Boat even named the little Tibetan antelope he cared for. Now, he hasn't done this for a long time. "They belong to Hoh Xil, not to humans. With human names, the bond is deeper. "They are the real masters of Hoh Xil."
In Hoh Xil, poaching gunshots have not sounded for more than ten years.
The number of Tibetan antelopes here has increased from less than 20,000 when poaching activities were most rampant in the late 1990s to more than 70,000 now.
In early summer, on the vast plateau of naked yellow, Tibetan antelope mothers will travel north from the mating place in winter to the lambing place in summer.
After about 300 kilometers of trek, in Zhuonai Lake, Sun Lake and other places, this ethnic group will usher in a new life.
The grass is green, and hundreds of animals live in peace. Just like thousands of years, the order on this land has been mysterious and calm, and has not been disturbed.
Gold digger, poacher, protector
This is a process of mutual adaptation.
Naturally sensitive Tibetan antelopes can run at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour, but when crossing the Qinghai-Tibet highway less than 10 meters wide, they tend to slow down and repeatedly "inquiry".
From more than 10 years ago, the Tibetan antelopes wandered back and forth and tried two or three days to pass the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. Now, the sheep can pass the Qinghai-Tibet Highway as short as ten minutes or as long as a few hours.
This means that in Hoh Xil, humans are strengthening the protection of animals, and animals are gradually adapting to the existence of humans, railways and roads.
"The population of Tibetan antelopes has gone from less than 20,000 when it was endangered to more than 70,000 now. The populations of rare wild animals such as snow leopards and Tibetan wild donkeys are also increasing year by year." Zhao Xinlu loves here, in 1997, Hoh Xil Nature When the reserve was established, he had just been demobilized from the army and became the first team to enter the reserve.
Today, he is the head of the Sonam Dajie Protection Station, where there is the only Tibetan antelope rescue center in the outer protection station.
The gunfire, in the empty and quiet wasteland, has not sounded for many years.
At one time, it was the most abrupt existence on this land.
Crazy poaching stems from the huge economic value of Tibetan antelope skin and cashmere.
In the European market, Tibetan antelope cashmere is the raw material for the high-end fashion "Shatosh" shawl.
These shawls made of Tibetan antelope wool can be passed through a small ring and sold in the world's top fashion stores for tens of thousands of dollars each.
As for the raw material of a shawl, 3 to 5 Tibetan antelopes need to be hunted.
In the mid-1990s, a piece of Tibetan antelope skin sold for 300 to 500 yuan in Hoh Xil or Golmud. When it reached the border between India and Nepal, the price could rise to 2,000 to 3,000 yuan.
As far as Zhao Xinlu is concerned, he will never forget, nor dare to forget, the silent pictures left after the crazy poaching.
The skinned Tibetan antelopes are lying quietly, piled up layer by layer.
A bullet pierced two sheep, and some sheep were skinned after being wounded. After cruelty, they still had a weak breath and died slowly.
In the bloodstream, the staggering lamb struggled to find its mother's nipples, and was starved to death in the end.
What's more, it is the lamb that has formed in the belly of the ewe, and has no chance in the world.
Some people are killing because of greed, while others are protecting with their lives.
On January 18, 1994, Jassan Sonan Dajje and 4 team members captured 20 poachers, seized 7 cars and more than 1,800 Tibetan antelope skins. When they escorted the poachers to the Sun Lake, Sonam Dajie was attacked.
He died in a confrontation with gun poachers, and he was molded into an ice sculpture in the wind and snow at minus 40°C.
That year, he was 40 years old.
The sacrifice of Sonam Dajie made the whole world know Hoh Xil and Tibetan antelope.
In order to protect the Tibetan antelope, Hoh Xil was listed as a provincial-level reserve in 1996, a protection agency was established in 1997, and it was promoted to a national-level nature reserve in the same year.
The total area of the reserve is 45,000 square kilometers.
This is currently one of the national nature reserves with the highest altitude and the richest wildlife resources in China. It is known as the plateau wildlife gene bank, and it is also the first nature reserve set up to protect Tibetan antelope.
Symphony of destiny
At the Kunlun Mountain Pass, the Sonam Dajie Monument stands silently, accepting the mourning of visitors.
This is the only way to enter the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve.
To and from here, the staff of the Hoh Xil Administration Bureau, even if they are driving, will take off their hats and pay tribute when passing by.
At the foot of the snow-capped mountains, the prayer flags are blowing, and those stories are always there.
After Sonam Dajie died, his brother-in-law, Zaba Dorje, then deputy director of the Qinghai Yushu Prefecture People’s Congress Legal Affairs Committee, voluntarily applied for “demotion” to Zhiduo County as deputy secretary of the county party committee, recruited team members, and rebuilt the Western Working Committee. Continue on the road of protection of Sonam Dajie.
Furthermore, he began to implement closed management in Hoh Xil.
Three years later, Zaba Dorje passed away.
The documentary film director Peng Hui left an image of him during his lifetime. He was a Tibetan man like a "wild yak". He was strong and sweaty, so he didn't turn his words directly.
Once in a chat, Peng Hui asked him that the documentary will record his flaws, including the skins that he sold in the earliest to keep the protection team running, and he also broke the poachers’ legs in anger.
"Did you know, he took a big palm shot and said,'This is the real me, what I'm afraid of, I take it.'" During the three years of shooting, Peng Hui walked into the family deeply, and he recorded After the loss of two close relatives, Zaba Dorje’s wife and Sonam Dje’s younger sister Baima still sent his eldest son Phu Tso Cairen to the Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve Administration to become a forest policeman; she supported the two After graduating from university, his son Qiu Pei Tashi also entered the management bureau and became an auxiliary police officer in the protection station.
Today, Zaba Dorje’s two sons, one is the head of the Tuotuo River Conservation Station and the other is the head of the Zhuonai Lake Conservation Station.
One is guarding the migration path of Tibetan antelopes, and the other is guarding the main calving area of Tibetan antelopes.
When he was young, sitting on the red motorcycle of his uncle Sonam Dajie, drove through the grassland of his hometown. Qiu Pei Tashi thought he would become a shepherd when he grew up, but he never thought that the fate of him was the Tibetan antelope. .
Now, Qiu Pei Tashi's sons have grown up, but it is still difficult for him to face the departure of his relatives with the feeling of being a hero in the family.
In his mind, that is a loss that can never be replaced.
For more people, from the death of Sonam Dajie, the great symbolic influence of Hoh Xil has far surpassed this area and the Tibetan antelope itself.
Long Zhou Caijia still remembers the story of sneaking into the movie theater when he was a student. At that time, the movie he watched was related to Sonan Dage.
When he grew up, a job posting gave him a chance.
After entering the Hoh Xil Administration Bureau, he first worked at the Wudaoliang Protection Station.
When the veteran team went out, he was the only one in the protection station.
In winter, when the world was white and vast, he took his binoculars to verify whether the Tibetan antelope "little sheep kneeling milk" was true, and then looked at the groups of animals running around on the wasteland.
The guardian of Hoh Xil is not alone.
Nearly 90% of Qinghai Province's land area is included in restricted development zones and prohibited development zones.
In firmly establishing the concept that green waters and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, ecological environmental protection has become a basic prerequisite and rigid constraint for high-quality development.
In the past 15 years, the water level of Qinghai Lake has risen by more than 3 meters and the area has expanded by more than 300 square kilometers.
The continuous rise of the water level of Qinghai Lake is conducive to the humidification and warming of the surrounding climate, which has improved the habitat of local wildlife and birds and the ecological environment of the entire lake area to a certain extent.
Hoh Xil has never been disturbed
“Protecting the ecological environment of Qinghai is the'bigger of the country'.” In June this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during an inspection tour in Qinghai that Qinghai is a strategically important place for maintaining national ecological security, and we must take responsibility for maintaining ecological security, protecting the source of the Three Rivers and the Three Rivers. The major mission of protecting the "China Water Tower".
The mountains and thick soil, the beautiful picture scroll, slowly unfolded.
In Hoh Xil, the area of frozen soil has reached more than 90%, and glaciers and frozen soil have become huge solid reservoirs and resources, the "kidney" and "lung" of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and a magnificent animal kingdom.
There are greedy people who have spent more than half a century trying to conquer.
Some people choose to use several generations to persist in guarding and recovering.
Here, you can clearly see how a person, group of people, and a generation are fighting to protect, restoring and restoring nature in awe, and constantly searching for a balance between man and nature.
It's the season for Tibetan antelope to give birth again, and the members of Zhuonai Lake Protection Station will guard until the Tibetan antelope leaves with their children.
Zhao Xinlu used to be the head of the Zhuonai Lake Protection Station. After more than two months of isolation from the world, he was the only one who faced each other day and night.
Every morning when I get up, the tent is full of Tibetan antelopes. They walk among the sheep in shorts without disturbing each other.
Having encountered brown bears and wolves, Zhao Xinlu will avoid or drive away with his partners.
When a beast attacks the Tibetan antelope, they will not interfere.
"The weak and the strong eat, this is the law of nature, we humans cannot intervene." In fact, every time I see a wolf biting a baby Tibetan antelope and throwing it around, playing with prey, listening to the lamb and mother sheep's wailing, Zhao Xinlu feels sad. , But in the Hoh Xil Administration, everyone's consensus is that animals should be left to solve the animal's affairs.
Therefore, at the Sonang Takje Protection Station, all the rescued wild animals will be given animal independence.
The protection station is always busy at all times. Even in Hoh Xil, where there is no poaching gun sound, it still faces the important task of ecological protection and scientific research.
For these guardians, starting from Golmud, driving along the 109 National Highway towards Lhasa, the altitude gradually rises, the heaven and the earth are quiet, the Tibetan antelope is busy migrating, the Tibetan wild donkey is slowly waving its tail, and occasionally a Tibetan The wild fox ran past quickly, bringing up some dust...
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——This is the most beautiful picture in their hearts. Everyone believes that this place will get better and better.
West China Metropolis Daily-cover news reporter Du Jiangqian