In Yamal, authorities and fuel and energy companies help reindeer herders save animals

The Yamal nomads greet March with confused feelings. This month, the municipalities celebrate Reindeer Herder Day. Last year, it didn’t happen for the first time - the CORONAVIRUS broke the tradition, but this March it is being resumed and should, in theory, become a kind of preamble to the World Congress of Reindeer Breeders, which will be hosted by neighboring Yugra. However, those wandering with herds on the Yamal Peninsula are not at all up to the holidays - they are in alarm for the life of animals: they have long lost access to the main food - reindeer moss. The lack of fodder, which was provoked by the weather anomaly, once again reminded of the problems of the key agricultural sector for the YNAO.

The trouble came to the reindeer herders of the northern part of the peninsula - in the Seyakhinskaya and Tambeyskaya tundra. This is the Arctic desert zone. Even at the beginning of winter, abundantly moist moss pastures were covered with a thick ice crust as a result of a sharp change in temperature. It is difficult to break it with hooves. Due to the lack of food, deer become weak, the weak often die. According to the HEAD of the community "Valama" Leonid Vanuyto, those who were starving were sometimes finished off by severe frost.

This happened in 2014, when the death toll in the YNAO exceeded 6,000 heads. Today, some tundra dwellers speak in despair about probable losses, measured in tens of thousands of animals. This will be a devastating blow to many families.

In the administration of the Yamal region, talk about the alleged mass deaths is called far-fetched. But they admit that the situation will remain extremely tense until the warm days in March-April thin the ice. According to officials, there are now approximately 65,000 animals in the disaster area, and about 250 have died.

Large losses were avoided thanks to emergency assistance provided to hundreds of families of nomads in the winter, including support for fuel and energy companies. Reindeer herders were provided with free gasoline (up to 400 liters per family), dozens of tons of mixed fodder and mineral supplements were delivered to the places. In February, 17.7 thousand rubles were transferred to cards from the reserve fund to families with a modest livestock (and they are the majority).

- The fears of my fellow countrymen are understandable, because to lose animals means to lose their livelihood, - explains hereditary reindeer herder Eiko Serotetto. - Deer instinctively gather in huge herds in search of lichen. Active chaotic movement further weakens them. He needs to be prevented, there is no way without snowmobiles, and they burn a lot of fuel. Compound feed helps out, but this is an inferior replacement for reindeer moss, at least mix it with ordinary hay.

Vaccination of deer against anthrax made it possible to clarify their number - by the beginning of 2018, there were about 667 thousand. The Yamal herd remains the largest on the planet, but it will inevitably be reduced to at least half a million, primarily due to a lack of reindeer moss. This has happened in history. DOCTOR of Agricultural Sciences Alexander Yuzhakov recalls: the lack of pastures and the lack of proper pasture turnover with the explosive growth of livestock caused a 20-fold reduction in the herd in Alaska in the first half of the 20th century, and the pursuit of the slogan "Give me a million deer!" in Chukotka in the 1970s, 20 years later became the cause of the disaster of the industry. Now a group of Yamal reindeer herders have moved to Chukotka, where there is again quite a lot of moss lands, and reindeer breeding is barely alive: to share experience and settle down there.

According to experts, in 2020-2024, the production of delicacy deer MEAT in the Russian Federation will decrease by an average of 2.1 percent annually. Mainly because of the "Yamal factor". But the demand for it promises to grow, as well as the cost.