Tibetan herdsman Xihegya, 35, used to believe the old saying that to live as a grassland nomad was to die as a grassland nomad.

But it's been a while since he last went chasing water and pasture for his stock on the grasslands near the source of the Yellow River.

Xihegya now lives with his family in a brick house near the seat of Maqu County, the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan, Northwest China's Gansu Province, raising 300 sheep and 40 cattle in his four heated shelters.

"I bought my herd around the Spring Festival. After three months in the shelters, 80 sheep are ready for sale which could make me a net profit of 7,000 yuan (US$863)," he says.

The Shouqu Grassland, where the Yellow River makes a big bend after entering Gansu from Qinghai, was the area Xihegya used to roam with his herds.

However, the stock lost weight due to a lack of grass in winter and herdsmen suffered heavy losses, Xihegya recalled.

So many nomadic Tibetans in Gannan kept more livestock as a way to increase profits.

But the increase in stock numbers caused ever-worsening environmental damage, said Xize, an official of the Tibetan group with Maqu County government.

The wetland in the 858,667-hectare Shouqu Grassland used to provide the Yellow River with 2.7 billion cubic meters of water annually, but this has dropped by an average of 10 percent since the late 1980s.

Sand dunes are now ubiquitous in Shouqu, which was once covered with grass, said Xize.

The Autonomous Prefectural government of Gannan took steps in 2004 to encourage Tibetan nomads to rear livestock in fenced shelters instead of moving from place to place to feed their herds.

In addition to assisting Tibetan herdsmen in acquiring loans for constructing heated shelters, the prefecture also offered technical help in shelter building and animal husbandry.

The 2,533 heated shelters now in the prefecture can sustain the same number of livestock that would have required 80,000 hectares of pasture.

Xihegya has constructed four shelters with heating facilities and a new brick house near the county seat of Maqu.

"Raising stock on procured fodder in shelters has reduced pressure on the pasture and guaranteed the sale of healthy sheep and cattle all year round," said Xihegya, who estimated his income this year would top 40,000 yuan, three times his income before he settled down.

With his former hardships behind him, he now enjoys the conveniences of a fixed abode -- television, healthcare and school for his children.

"There was a saying, 'Once a grassland nomad, always a grassland nomad', but the reality is different," Xihegya said. "I am doing well after leaving the grasslands."

Nomadic Tibetan herdsmen in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region are increasingly settling down into a fixed way of life.

More than 18,000 herding families have built permanent residences in a bid to preserve the grasslands for their children to enjoy.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2006)