Close X
Thursday, October 31, 2024
ADVT 
India

World's 'Highest' Village In Spiti Valley Runs Dry As Global Warming Hits The Himalayas

Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 Aug, 2017 01:29 PM
    With a backdrop of the snow-capped Himalayas stretched out across a vibrant blue sky, it is hard to dispute the sign as you enter Komik that declares it to be the world's highest village with a road.
     
     
    Others also boast the title — from Nepal's Dho Tarap to Bolivia's Santa Barbara. But at 4,587 metre (15,050 ft), this remote Buddhist hamlet near India's border with Tibet is no doubt among the planet's topmost motorable human settlements.
     
     
    Yet despite its coveted status, life is harsh for the 130 residents of Komik, a quaint collection of whitewashed mud-and-stone houses located in the desolate Spiti Valley.
     
     
    The region is a cold trans-Himalayan desert cut off from the rest of India for six months of the year when snowfall blocks mountain passes. Phone and internet connectivity is almost non-existent. Schools and clinics are a tough trek away.
     
     
    But Spiti's some 12,000 inhabitants, who eke out a living farming green peas and barley, have a much bigger concern: their main sources of water — streams, rivers, ponds — are drying up.
     
     
    "We are used to being in a remote place. We have our traditional ways of living," said farmer Nawang Phunchok, 32, as he sat tying bundles of a prickly desert bush together to insulate the local monastery's roof.
     
     
    "But these days the water is not coming like it used to. The seasons are changing. We see there is less water than before." There is little doubt India is facing a water crisis.
     
     
    Decades of over-extraction of ground water, wasteful and inefficient irrigation practices, pollution of surface water like lakes and rivers, and erratic weather patterns attributed to climate change, have left many parts of the country thirsty.
     
     
    But while government, charities and media increasingly focus on the drought-stricken farmers in the plains, their Himalayan counterparts — ironically living in a region often called the "Water Towers of Asia" — also need help, say conservationists.

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Pastor Shot Dead Outside Church In Ludhiana

    Pastor Shot Dead Outside Church In Ludhiana
    Two armed youths with their faces covered shot at the pastor from a close range, police said today.

    Pastor Shot Dead Outside Church In Ludhiana

    'Robin Hood' Delhi Thief Arrested From Bihar

    'Robin Hood' Delhi Thief Arrested From Bihar
    Delhi Police have arrested a 27-year-old thief, who led a lavish life, conducted health camps and helped in the marriage of poor girls, from his native village, police said on Monday.

    'Robin Hood' Delhi Thief Arrested From Bihar

    Supreme Court Asks Centre To Decide On Statutory Regime For NRI Voting

    Supreme Court Asks Centre To Decide On Statutory Regime For NRI Voting
    The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central government to take a call whether it wanted to amend the Representation of People Act or its Rules to decide on the modalities of NRI voting in elections from their overseas locations.

    Supreme Court Asks Centre To Decide On Statutory Regime For NRI Voting

    Security, Counter-Terrorism Key To Strengthening India-US Ties: Tulsi Gabbard

    Security, Counter-Terrorism Key To Strengthening India-US Ties: Tulsi Gabbard
    Gabbard, the first Hindu elected to the Congress, was in conversation with the Indian envoy to the US, Navtej Sarna, at the event.

    Security, Counter-Terrorism Key To Strengthening India-US Ties: Tulsi Gabbard

    CBI Traces Missing Delhi Woman After Five Years

    CBI Traces Missing Delhi Woman After Five Years
    The woman was found in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly on Sunday evening and is being taken back to Delhi. She had been missing since May 23, 2012. 

    CBI Traces Missing Delhi Woman After Five Years

    Presidential Election 2017: AAP MLA HS Phoolka Only One In Punjab Not To Cast Vote

    Presidential Election 2017: AAP MLA HS Phoolka Only One In Punjab Not To Cast Vote
    HS Phoolka, MLA from Dakha in Punjab, abstained from voting as he had already declared that he would not vote for Congress-led opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar since he was fighting cases of 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

    Presidential Election 2017: AAP MLA HS Phoolka Only One In Punjab Not To Cast Vote