Close X
Friday, November 1, 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

    McDonald's Shuts 43 Outlets In Delhi As Eating Licences Expire

    McDonald's Shuts 43 Outlets In Delhi As Eating Licences Expire
    In a setback to the US-based fast food chain McDonald's, 43 of the total 55 outlets will be shut in Delhi from on Thursday, on failure to renew eating house licences by its North and East India licensee Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt Ltd (CPRL). 

    McDonald's Shuts 43 Outlets In Delhi As Eating Licences Expire

    Men Do Not Commit Suicide, Says Minister Maneka Gandhi On Facebook

    Men Do Not Commit Suicide, Says Minister Maneka Gandhi On Facebook
    According to the National Crime Records Bureau, as many as 1,33,623 suicides were reported in the country in 2015, of which 68 per cent were committed by men.

    Men Do Not Commit Suicide, Says Minister Maneka Gandhi On Facebook

    Seven-Month Pregnant Woman Killed As Husband Pressed Her Stomach To Force Foetus Out: Punjab Police

    Seven-Month Pregnant Woman Killed As Husband Pressed Her Stomach To Force Foetus Out: Punjab Police
    Manjit Kaur’s father Ravinder Singh told the police that on Monday someone from the village told him about hearing Manjit’s cries in the night.

    Seven-Month Pregnant Woman Killed As Husband Pressed Her Stomach To Force Foetus Out: Punjab Police

    SIKH Store Owner Goes Viral In UK After Changing Its Name To 'MORRISINGHS'

    SIKH Store Owner Goes Viral In UK After Changing Its Name To 'MORRISINGHS'
    Jel Singh Nagra, 42, changed the name of his convenience store in West Allotment, North Tyneside, after Sainsbury's said its original name, Singhsbury's, was too similar to its own branding. 

    SIKH Store Owner Goes Viral In UK After Changing Its Name To 'MORRISINGHS'

    NOT IN MY NAME': Filmmaker's Facebook Post Brings Hundreds To Protest Mob Lynching In India

    NOT IN MY NAME': Filmmaker's Facebook Post Brings Hundreds To Protest Mob Lynching In India
    Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma among participants

    NOT IN MY NAME': Filmmaker's Facebook Post Brings Hundreds To Protest Mob Lynching In India

    Indian Travellers Can Now Get Expedited Entry Into US

    Indian Travellers Can Now Get Expedited Entry Into US
    Besides those in the US, the airports at Dublin in Ireland, Vancouver and Toronto in Canada and Abu Dhabi are also on the list.

    Indian Travellers Can Now Get Expedited Entry Into US