ROCKY ROAD 8 FAULT LINES IN THE CANYON

TROUBLE IN THE HILLS

The Crest Edition

A WORLD APART: The sign marks the end of the primarily Muslim Kargil district and start of the Buddhist Zanskar. (Below left) A young bride wearing a traditional crown that is owned by every household in the region. (Below) Young boys unwind near an icy cool waterfall

High in the Himalayas, Zanskar is one of the only places where the ancient Tibetan Buddhist way of life still exists. A road connecting this remote region with Leh will bring jobs and education, but it may just erode a way of life thousands of years old
TEXT: SHARANYA GAUTAM PHOTOS: VARUN GUPTA
t an altitude of more than 12,000 feet, Zanskar is a large expanse of brown. It is home to the mighty Zanskar river, which cuts long and deep through the arid and pathless Zanskar mountain range. Rafting down the river past fierce rapids and peaceful troughs, it is easy to lose yourself in the colours that streak the walls of the canyon shades of electric blue, lavender, purple, brick red until a group of construction workers waves furiously at you, trying to catch your attention. The men are taking a break from blasting through the rocks of the Zanskar canyon to build a road. No mean feat considering that this will be the first to reach the villages perched atop its jagged heights. For the last eight years, the Border Roads Organisation has been working to build the 300-km road that will connect the town of Darcha in Himachal Pradesh with Nimu near Leh in Ladakh through the remote Zanskar region in Kargil district in eastern Jammu and Kashmir. Once it is ready, the road promises an easier life for the people of Zanskar, who are cut off from the rest of the country for seven months in a year when important mountain passes are snowed in. But there are also concerns about how it will affect the ecology, culture and lifestyle of the region, which is home to one of the last communities that practise Tibetan Buddhism in its original form. They have largely remained untouched because of the inaccessibility of Zanskar. With a population of 12,169 as per the 2011 census, Zanskar is among the most isolated regions of the trans-Himalayan ranges. Unofficial estimates put the population at 16,000. The first road to connect Padam, the administrative capital of Zanskar, with Srinagar opened only in the early 1980s. This road is
HISTORY IN RUINS: The prayer room at the historical Zangla Palace in Zanskar is being restored by a Danish NGO. Some statues here are more than 300 years old. While the heritage sites of Ladakh have attracted many tourists, few know of the ruins at Zanskar

unusable for seven months of winter when heavy snowfall blocks the Pensi La pass through which it travels. Even now, the only way to reach some villages in the Zanskar ranges is either to climb mountain passes thousands of metres high or trek the frozen river Zanskar, or chadar, in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius during winter. Over centuries of isolation, the Zanskari way of life has adapted itself to these harsh conditions. Winter is long and food has to be grown during the summer months and preserved. The Zanskaris are primarily involved in animal husbandry and move to the higher mountains in summer to rear sheep, goats, yaks, cows and dzomos, a cross between yaks and cows. Barley, tea and a few leafy vegetables are cultivated and meat is eaten mainly in the winter months. A road connecting these villages to the Ladakh valley has been a long-standing demand. As most Zanskaris are Tibetan Buddhist, they have stronger ties with Buddhist Ladakh in terms of language, religion and community structure, compared to Kargil, which is predominantly Shia. The people of Zanskar also have stronger matrimonial ties with Ladakh and some of them have been moving to Leh for college and jobs. The road will guarantee them year-round access to better healthcare, education and employment. We are cut off from the rest of the state for seven months in a year. Its like we are a whole generation behind, says Tsering Chhosphel, a resident of Padam who has lived in Ladakh and Gulmarg. The Darcha-Padam-Nimu road, work on which began in 2003, is also considered significant for defence purposes as it will provide access to Leh from Himachal Pradesh, away from the enemy line of sight. Both the existing access routes to Leh the Srinagar-Leh highway and the Manali-Leh highway are closed when passes get snowed in during win-

WINDING ROAD
Kargil Srinagar
J&K Himachal Pradesh

Lamayuru Zanskar River Nimu Leh Nyerak Padam

Tangtse

Punjab Delhi Rajasthan

Ch um at ha ng
Manali-Leh Highway Srinagar-Leh Highway

Map for representative purposes only

Manali

Darcha- PadamNimu Road

ter. The Srinagar-Leh highway saw heavy bombardment during the Kargil war. Parts of the Zanskar canyon fold mountains formed millions of years ago when the Indian subcontinent, drifting on the Ocean of Tethys, slammed into Asia have already been lost to blasting. The rocks displaced due to blasting are changing the rivers course, creating newer, larger rapids. The canyon isnt easy to cut through. Hard vertical rock found near Nimu has delayed the completion of the road by 10 years, and the deadline for the project has been pushed from 2011 to 2021. Until now, around 140 km have been completed, of which approximately 100 km lie in Zanskar. Remote villages like Nyerak, which lie in the heart of the canyon, still remain untouched. But not for long. Because of the delay, we have worked out an alternate route that will connect Lamayuru to Padam through Nyerak by 2015, says a BRO project officer. While the road is seen as a positive development by many, a few are worried about its impact on the sustainable way of life that the people of Zanskar have maintained over centuries. The people here have adapted to scarce resources and provided for themselves for many generations in a harsh climate, says Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of Ancient Futures:Learning from Ladakh. In her book, Norberg-Hodge writes about the modernisation of Ladakh after it was opened up to outsiders in the mid 1970s. She has worked in Ladakh since then and is the founder-director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, which runs The Ladakh Project to encourage sustainable development. The opening up of Zanskar valley will bring ecological problems, destroy biodiversity and small-scale food production, and lead to a loss of natural resources, she says. Currently, the region sees a few tourists who come from Kargil or Srinagar, mainly for trekking and rafting. Tourism officials say that once the road is functional, 30 to 40 per cent of the tourists who visit Leh are likely to travel to Zanskar. Tourists have been visiting Leh for more than 25 years. The road may bring more experienced businessmen from Leh and the Zanskaris may end up working for them, and lose out on the opportunity to make money from their

The road will ensure year-round access to healthcare, education and employment. We are cut off from the rest of the state for seven months in a year. Its like we are a generation behind, says Tsering Chhosphel
own resources, says Chhosphel, who works in a Lehbased non-governmental organisation that focuses on environmental and cultural issues. At present, a few locals rent out their pastures to adventure sports companies as campsites and some accompany trekkers as porters. Organised tourism is restricted to a few hotels in Padam. Once the road comes, we need to make sure the locals profit, probably by encouraging homestays, he says. Zanskar is one of the only places where the ancient Tibetan Buddhist way of life still exists, uncorrupted by influences that have diluted it in other parts of the world. The region is home to a number of old gompas and monasteries, which dot the walls of its mountains, and are the only sign of life in the barren landscape. Geshe Lobsang Yonten, a monk from the Stongde monastery, says that the people of the valley have always been deeply religious and there is a need to preserve old structures once the region is opened up. We may end up losing our language, which is already threatened as the government school in Padam only teaches children Hindi, English and Urdu, he says. Norberg-Hodge suggests that the region be opened up responsibly and a sustainable model of development be put in place before the road brings in multinational companies and destroys culturally adapted businesses and ways of life. If this happens, the rich-poor divide will widen, she says. There is a need to diversify and enrich local agriculture, and develop renewable energy technologies, rather than bring in goods from outside, she says.