The steppe was finally freed from ice and snow. The white gives way to the still dry yellow of early spring, but on these empty expanses as far as the eye can see, we regularly distinguish spots of other colors: brown, beige, black. Carcasses of horses, sheep and cows, among the more than 6.9 million animals that did not survive the harsh winter. The Mongols speak of a dzud (disaster) âwhite and ironâ : the snow fell suddenly at the beginning of November 2023, but a mild spell caused it to melt. The great cold came immediately afterwards, freezing from December to the end of March a layer of impenetrable ice covered with thick snow.
The nomads had no memory of such temperatures, falling below -40°C. They remained helpless as their animals died one by one. Oyungerel Dolgsuren lost almost everything. Of the four hundred animals she raised with her husband, Demberelsaihan, and their three children, only three sheep, around thirty goats and four cows survive. The thirteen horses that remained from their herd of fifty head got lost in the cold and the blizzard. There is no doubt that they are now dead, but the couple searches for them anyway.
Every evening, the 46-year-old breeder thinks back to what we should have done if only we had known: sell all the animals in December. But by January, when the couple understood the scale of the disaster, it was already too late. Impossible to cross the 40 kilometers of track to the small town of Munkhkhaan to sell the cattle. The herders were up to their hips in snow and they had to clear the door of the yurt to get out. In just a few minutes outside searching and feeding the animals, Oyungerel Dolgsuren had frozen cheekbones. She was afraid for herself too. The animals could no longer feed themselves by scraping the ground, the ice was unbreakable, their legs were scratched. The family used all the supplementary grain, which they had borrowed for before the winter season, but nothing helped.
Pile of carcasses
Weakened, the animals succumbed to the cold and hunger. While sick or old animals take time to die, says the nomad, there, everyone died quickly. They landed and never got up again. Every day there were three or four, sometimes more, twenty at once, one terrible morning. The family made the weakest animals sleep with them in the yurt, but they were already too weak. Some females died of exhaustion during pregnancy or giving birth. âWe tried everythingâ repeats Oyungerel Dolgsuren.
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