"As an environmentalist, I am very concerned about the fragile and sensitive ecosystem of Ladakh,” said Magsaysay Award-winning educationist Sonam Wangchuk, who recently concluded his 21-day hunger strike in Leh. Popularly known as 'climate fast', Wangchuk had begun observing it on 6 March, demanding constitutional safeguards for Ladakh.
On the final day of his fast on 26 March, Wangchuk said that the people of Ladakh are trying to awaken the conscience of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah so that they take suitable action to safeguard the fragile ecosystem of Himalayan mountains in Ladakh and preserve the unique indigenous tribal culture.
“We don’t like to think of Modi ji and Amit Shah ji as just politicians, we would rather think of them as statesmen but for that, they will have to show some character and farsightedness…” he posted on X.
Wangchuk had become the face of a sustained agitation in the cold desert where people are up in arms against the central government for discarding their concerns regarding land and job rights.
"Every drop of water is important here. Ladakh can't support large numbers. It will make refugees out of locals and even for those who arrive, the situation would not be any good. That's the fear people have regarding the fate of our land and our culture – finely tuned over tens or even thousands of years to survive in these mountains, now at risk of dilution and unable to sustain itself,” he added.
However, this was not the first time that Wangchuk had undertaken a climate fast:
In January 2023, he undertook a five-day climate fast at his institution, the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives (HIAL) in Ladakh at -20 degrees Celsius.
In June 2023, Wangchuk again went on a nine-day climate fast to save "Ladakh’s fragile ecology."
The Ecological Connection to Ladakh’s Demands
Ladakh is a high-altitude desert inhabited by around 3 lakh people. The region is considered ecologically fragile due to its extreme climate conditions, scarce vegetation, and limited water resources. Most people are dependent on agriculture as a means of livelihood.
A separate territory was a long-pending demand of the Ladakhis but they were expecting one with constitutional safeguards – something that was categorically denied by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government earlier this month.
Their land and job rights were taken away with the Abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019, and the region was thrown open to people from other states.
Sensing that New Delhi is not in any mood to extend the Sixth Schedule that would safeguard the region and grant limited autonomy to the tribal region, the engineer-turned-educational reformer had announced a "climate fast” back in 2023 in a bid to turn attention towards the region's delicate ecology.
Speaking to The Quint, Wangchuk said that global warming has been melting glaciers in the Himalayan region where Ladakh is located. He also added that shifting weather patterns are resulting in frequent flash floods, landslides, and droughts that are impacting the lives of people living in the sparsely populated villages of the region.
"We are protesting to safeguard the mountains of the Himalayan region from indiscriminate exploitation and mining which have already wreaked havoc in places like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and even Sikkim. All these activities are now poised to impact Ladakh,” he added.
Wangchuk’s Relentless Efforts To Save Ladakh: The ‘Third Pole’ of the Planet
Lately, the glaciers are receding fast and many sectors in Northern India rely on them.
Wangchuk said that Ladakh, which is home to an extensive glacial system, is known as the "Third pole of the planet." It feeds two billion people directly or indirectly.
"If mining industries are introduced in these areas, not only will the local communities suffer, but the entire Northern Indian plains will face water shortages. Therefore, it is crucial that we safeguard these fragile regions as sacred zones of water,” he said.
"For the local people, it's about protecting their region, customs, culture, and land – all of which are enshrined in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, as our forefathers have established 75 years ago," Wangchuk added.
Back in 2015, Wangchuk had invented the 'Ice Stupa', an artificial glacier created by piping mountain streams to tackle the water crisis in Ladakh which faces water scarcity in April-May – the peak farming season.
Since then, the farmers in Leh have benefitted from such Ice Stupas.
Not only that, in 2021, Wangchuk whose life inspired a character in the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, developed an eco-friendly solar-heated tent that Army personnel can use in extremely cold places like Siachen and Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region.
How Will the Sixth Schedule Save Ladakh’s Ecology?
For the Sixth Schedule to be applicable, the Constitution mandates that a region's population must consist of at least 50 percent of tribal communities. In Ladakh, around 97 percent of its population are tribals.
Wangchuk asserted that they are trying to do everything possible to safeguard the mountains.
"The Sixth Schedule of Article 244, which gives safeguards to these regions, the people, and their cultures where they can determine how these places should be developed without interference from others,” he said. "This is what Ladakh has been demanding for a long time before it was made into a Union Territory (UT)," he added.
Notably, the Sixth Schedule contains provisions that grant indigenous tribes significant autonomy, enabling the establishment of Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) with legislative and judicial authority. These councils are empowered to enact regulations concerning various aspects such as land, forest, water, agriculture, health, sanitation, mining, and beyond.
"That was our hope which later turned into uncertainty when the government, as generously as it granted Union Territory status to Ladakh, promised that Ladakh would be safeguarded under the Sixth Schedule but did not fulfil it,” Wangchuk said.
He further argued that if Ladakh is left free for all with no safeguards, there will be mining companies coming. "We hear often they are scouting the mountains and valleys," Wangchuk said, adding that people are apprehensive that huge hotel chains will come up, each potentially bringing in thousands of visitors, that will pose threats to the dry desert ecology of Ladakh.
'The BJP Needs To Keep Its Promise’
Wangchuk said that the BJP needs to fulfil its promise that they made during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections regarding the “Declaration of Ladakh under the Sixth schedule of the Indian Constitution."
"It's like giving a cheque and if the cheque bounces, then we don't care. Hence, what happens to Ladakh with this promise will set a precedent to the rest of India in all elections to come whether leaders can just say anything and not care later and also get away with it,” he added.
(Auqib Javeed is an independent journalist based in Jammu and Kashmir. He has been reporting on Human rights, politics, insurgency, business and economy and climate change from the J&K. Zaid bin Shabir is a Srinagar-based independent journalist. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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