Ex-Army officer’s gift to Komic,a windmill

However,he decided against turning his passion into a venture and made windmills only for friends or people who genuinely needed it.

Mundkur was approached by a representative of an NGO from Spiti Valley in May this year who briefed him about the power problems in Komic.

Mundkur began making the windmill in August and it was installed in the village by September end. Mundkur built the 1400 watt wind-solar hybrid windmill,purchased solar panels and dispatched them to Manali by road. He was joined by Capt Afzal Amdani and Gautam Deshmukh at Manali,who travelled with him to Spiti Valley to help him install the windmill.

Considering the height and the temperature of the village,Mundkur admits that more than installing the windmill,the bigger challenge was to get used to the surroundings as he faced high-altitude sickness.

Though there is ample availability of power in the region,the hydro electric power plant invariably gets damaged due to the low temperature which reaches upto minus 20 to minus 25 degrees during winters.

“We wanted to decentralise the energy and we came up with the idea of a windmill. Since Mundkur makes windmills more as a philanthropic,the whole set up was done in just Rs 4 lakhs,which was four-times less than what was offered by established windmill companies,” said Sunil Chauhan,an employee of NGO Ecosphere in Spiti Valley. The cost of the windmill was borne by Ecosphere with some contribution from the local community of Komic. Chauhan said a number of villages around Komic are now considering installing a windmill as an alternate source of energy.

Mundkur also developed the pedal generator that was attached to the battery so the lamas could do their work and charge the batteries at the same time,to light up the main temple and kitchen. “The Komic villagers wrote Om Mani Padme Hum on the windmill blades. They also promised to pedal for at least 10 minutes before prayers and meals,” added Mundkur.