However, human impact is now taking an unprecedented and devastating toll on the natural resources - the wildlife, forests, grazing lands, rivers and mineral resources are now at a point where they may never recover. Wildlife Pre-1950 travelers in Tibet compared it to East Africa, so vast were the herds of large mammals. Today, the herds are all but vanished, wiped out mainly by Chinese soldiers shooting automatic weapons from trucks in the 1960s. Poaching by Tibetans and Chinese continues, threatening the survival of some species. Deforestation Forests in Tibet are the third largest in China's present day borders and government lumber operations are cutting at an unprecedented rate.
Reforestation is neglected and ineffective, leaving hillsides vulnerable to erosion.
Rapid and widespread deforestation has life-threatening consequences for the hundreds of millions who live in the flood plains of the major rivers of Southeast Asia, many of which have their headwaters in Tibet. Today there are at least 3 or 4 nuclear missile launch sites in Tibet housing an unknown number of warheads. Nuclear waste from the research facility is feared to be dumped on the nearby plains where Tibetan nomads allege they have suffered illness and death from strange diseases consistent with radiation sickness. ICT's ground-breaking report Nuclear Tibet, addresses this troublesome area. Desertification Government-encouraged population migration into the northern Tibetan plateau, now under control of Qinghai Province, has caused massive and irreparable environmental damage to huge tracts of fragile tableland.