Close X
Saturday, November 2, 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

    Crossing Religious Divide: Hindu, Muslim Wives Donate Kidneys To Each Other's Husband

    Crossing Religious Divide: Hindu, Muslim Wives Donate Kidneys To Each Other's Husband
    Ekram (29), a resident of Greater Noida, and Rahul Varisht (26), a Baghpat resident, were suffering from kidney ailments and needed kidney transplant. 

    Crossing Religious Divide: Hindu, Muslim Wives Donate Kidneys To Each Other's Husband

    India Is A 'Guru' And We Are Chelas (Followers), We Are Reliable Chelas: Dalai Lama

    Calling himself the messenger of ancient Indian values and knowledge, the Dalai Lama said, "India is a guru and we are chelas (followers), we are reliable chelas, because we have preserved your ancient knowledge."

    India Is A 'Guru' And We Are Chelas (Followers), We Are Reliable Chelas: Dalai Lama

    Controversial Godman Chandraswami Dies

    Controversial Godman Chandraswami Dies
    Chandraswami, who had suffered a stroke, died at the Apollo Hospital at the age of 66.  

    Controversial Godman Chandraswami Dies

    ONLY 57% Students Pass Punjab Board Class-10 Exam, CM Amarinder Singh Dismayed by Results

    Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday expressed dismay over the “poor” results of Class 10 exams conducted by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), in which over 40 per cent of the students failed.

    ONLY 57% Students Pass Punjab Board Class-10 Exam, CM Amarinder Singh Dismayed by Results

    Canada Expresses Regret After India Takes Up Entry Denial To Ex-Policeman Tejinder Singh Dhillon

    Canada Expresses Regret After India Takes Up Entry Denial To Ex-Policeman Tejinder Singh Dhillon
    Tejinder Singh Dhillon, who retired with the rank of Inspector General of Police from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in 2010, was declared inadmissible under a subsection of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

    Canada Expresses Regret After India Takes Up Entry Denial To Ex-Policeman Tejinder Singh Dhillon

    Madhya Pradesh: Minister Gifts Wooden Bats To 700 Brides To Beat Husbands If They Turn Alcoholic

    Madhya Pradesh: Minister Gifts Wooden Bats To 700 Brides To Beat Husbands If They Turn Alcoholic
    What would you generally gift a newly-married couple? A Madhya Pradesh minister decided on an unusual present -- a 'mogri'' or a wooden bat -- for nearly 700 brides at a mass marriage ceremony.

    Madhya Pradesh: Minister Gifts Wooden Bats To 700 Brides To Beat Husbands If They Turn Alcoholic