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

    Baby Born With Four Legs At Government Hospital In Andhra Pradesh's Kakinada

    Baby Born With Four Legs At Government Hospital In Andhra Pradesh's Kakinada
    Huge crowd gathered to see the new-born baby with four legs at a government hospital at Kakinada near Rajamahendravaram, in Andhra Pradesh.

    Baby Born With Four Legs At Government Hospital In Andhra Pradesh's Kakinada

    Haryana: Man Murdered After Argument Over Seat In Train

    Haryana: Man Murdered After Argument Over Seat In Train
    A man was murdered after a scuffle broke out in a train over a seat in Haryana's Palwal, said the police on Friday.

    Haryana: Man Murdered After Argument Over Seat In Train

    Cricketer Mithali Raj Shut Down A Sexist Question And Twitter's All For It, Sania Mirza Applauds

    Cricketer Mithali Raj Shut Down A Sexist Question And Twitter's All For It, Sania Mirza Applauds
    Sania Mirza applauds Mithali Raj for giving befitting reply to 'sexist' question

    Cricketer Mithali Raj Shut Down A Sexist Question And Twitter's All For It, Sania Mirza Applauds

    Punjab Assembly Passes Amendment To Allow Serving Liquor In Hotels On Highway

    Punjab Assembly Passes Amendment To Allow Serving Liquor In Hotels On Highway
    The Punjab Assembly on Friday passed a Bill to enable hotels, restaurants and other notified places near highways in the state to serve liquor.

    Punjab Assembly Passes Amendment To Allow Serving Liquor In Hotels On Highway

    Haryana Now Has A 'TRUMP' Village

    Haryana Now Has A 'TRUMP' Village
    Though it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been pushing for building toilets under the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, it is US President Donald Trump who is getting publicity. At least in Haryana.

    Haryana Now Has A 'TRUMP' Village

    Fastway Cables Caused Rs 700 Crore Loss To State Exchequer: Navjot Sidhu

    Fastway Cables Caused Rs 700 Crore Loss To State Exchequer: Navjot Sidhu
    A probe in cable network business has exposed an unholy nexus which resulted in the loss to the tune of Rs.700 crore to the state revenue, said Local Government Minister S Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Punjab Assembly today.

    Fastway Cables Caused Rs 700 Crore Loss To State Exchequer: Navjot Sidhu