5 min readNew DelhiApr 9, 2024 10:33 PM IST
First published on: Apr 9, 2024 at 10:33 PM IST
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk recently sat on a 21-day fast seeking safeguards for Ladakh’s fragile ecology and local culture, and called for a people’s march to the China border on April 7 “to see how much land locals have lost to them”. Slated to be led by local tribal leaders, the march has now been withdrawn as Wangchuk cited “risk of potential violence” as the reason for the decision.
Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Wangchuk had also led a climate fast in January and has pioneered initiatives to conserve water and harness the power of the sun in Ladakh, where temperatures can go as low as -40 degrees Celsius.
Here is a look at some of the innovations by him and his students.
Ice stupa
Wangchuk created the ice stupas in 2013 as a solution for Ladakh’s water scarcity. An arid desert with ever-depleting water levels, the region offers immense challenges for farming. So, Wangchuk leveraged the freezing winter weather to create conical towers of ice from gravity-fed pipelines. Come summer, the water dripping away from these melting glaciers turns into reservoir holding thousands of litres of water.
Low-cost solar-heated buildings
Wangchuk’s institute Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) operates out of a campus which runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating.
The passive solar design absorbs heat from the sun and then stores it as long as possible, ensuring double digit temperatures inside the building when the outside temperature drops to as low as -25 degrees Celsius.
Wangchuk and his students have also designed solar-heated eco-friendly buildings made from mud for use by local communities. Features like optimal placement of greenhouses, glass-covered skylights, insulation in the roof and outer walls, and south facing windows to harness the sun’s position in the southern sky in winter.
Eco-friendly tents, buildings for Indian Army
In 2021, Wangchuk and his team at Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL) built an eco-friendly solar-heated tent for use by the Indian Army in extremely cold places like the Siachen glacier and Galwan valley. “This tent uses the solar energy trapped during day time to keep the soldiers’ sleeping chamber warm during night. Since there is no use of fossil fuel, it saves on money and also is emission free,” he told PTI.
The temperature inside the sleeping chamber of the military tent can be increased or decreased by the corresponding increase or decrease in insulation layers. “The sleeping chamber has four layers of insulation and it gave a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius at a time when outside temperature was minus 14 degrees Celsius,” he added.
Wangchuk said the tent can accommodate 10 soldiers and is portable, given that none of its components weigh more than 30 kg.
The innovator said it took his team one month to make the prototype of the solar-heated tent. It will save 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide and crores annually,” he said.
The same technology was also used to build a guest house at the Indian Army headquarters in Leh.
Light Fidelity technology
SECMOL became the first-of-its-kind institute in the Union Territory in 2021 to have an internet connection using Light Fidelity (LiFi) technology. LiFi means transmitting data with a light beam spectrum through open space in outdoor and indoor environments.
LiFi systems provide ultra-fast data connections, and are especially useful in urban areas where radio spectra are congested and also very useful in rural areas wherein Fiber Optic Cables or networks are not reachable.
Sonam Wangchuk, Indian engineer, innovator and education reformist, protests at Jantar Mantar. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey) 
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