Snow Leopards in Ladakh

Ladakh is a land like no other, hundreds of mountain passes and monasteries, cold rugged deserts and the coldest inhabited place on earth after Siberia. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalayas and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar range. Not quite in the popular tourist circuit like the Kashmir Valley, its a land of stark, rugged landscapes. A group of school friends getting together after 25 years, we travelled to Ladakh in August last year (2007), flying in to Leh from Delhi.

The land of rarefied air

The first part of any tourist's itinerary in Ladakh, is allocated for "acclimatization" so that tourists get used to the rarefied air of Ladakh before they undertake any strenuous activities like walking! Many discussions, scares and advice from people who had travelled to Ladakh (and lot more from people who had not travelled there!) advised us complete rest from 24 to 96 hours before we did anything! As soon as you land at Leh airport, oxygen cylinders are seen in the arrival area, making you involuntarily feel your pulse, heart rate and check if you are still breathing. After we had checked into the guest house, we thought the need for acclimatization was a bit exaggerated and mentioned this to the guest house owner, who warned us to stay indoors and sleep! We understood why as soon as we had finished our chai and headed up a flight of 10 stairs to get to our room, panting. We later learnt that Ladakhi people have special lungs to survive this rarefied air and so do their horses! After a days rest, we were OK and all set to explore Ladakh.

Rugged Moonscapes & Monasteries

As you approach the region of Ladakh, the aerial view is one of huge contrasts. The stark granite of the mountains, very high heaps of loose gravel and the only greenery that can be seen is in the narrow valleys. Geologically, the Ladakhi Himalayas have risen up from the sea, when the Indian Ocean tectonic plate and the southern end of the Eurasian plate collided 10 millions years ago. The sands of the sea was carried up to the summit of the mountains to create a combination of sandy deserts, moonscapes and hard granite backdrops.

Indus & the Zanskar

The mighty Himalayas and its snow are a quarter of the precipitation anywhere on earth and when the snows melt and the rivers bring water down to the Indian plains, they cause a quarter of the worlds sedimentation as well, carrying down everything from fine sand to large boulders. Amongst these is the set of melting glaciers that create the Indus and Zanskar rivers in Ladakh. These rivers merge at a point (with a spectacular visual colour difference of the two waters) and then flow down to the plains of the Pakistani Punjab, where our mother civilization existed a few thousand years ago. The Indus and Zanskar rivers are popular white-water rafting destinations and give spectacular views of the Ladakhi Himalyas from the valley floor along with the thrill of the roaring rapids, the real life roller coasters!

Meagre resources and harsh environments

Stretching the limits of human endurance, respecting the fine balance between humans and nature and to understand that man is just a spec in the universe who could live with about 1/1000th the resources that we now consume, you should spend some time in Ladakhi villages. Observe how they share resources, maintain their delicate environments and live with the bare minimum, growing barley, peas and potatoes in the summer and above all how Ladakhi's manage their water resources. Staying at the home of some villagers at Rumbak (setup as a Himalayan Homestay as a part of the Snow Leopard Conservancy program) which is reached after trekking a few hours through Hemis National Park, taught us this and much more. No wonder the Himalayas have been associated with asceticism in India since time immemorial!

Highland military - highest everything!

Ladakh has hundreds of military outposts, close that it is to the Chinese border and a scene of Chinese aggression and conflicts of 1962. All the roads in this region are built, managed and maintained by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) that has created some engineering marvels just to maintain connectivity with this part of the country. Everything here is the highest in the world - the roads (Khardung La Pass, highest motorable road at 18380 ft), the helipads, airport, golf course and even the public toilets! For details of the military sight seeing places in Ladakh and other places in India take a look at my earlier post on Military Tourism in India

Of Israelis & International Gourmet Food

Ladakh was on the international tourist circuit even before it became a domestic tourist destination. Only tough westerners (especially Israelis) could endure the cold, the physical exertion and enjoy the landscapes of a cold desert! Most Indians would rather prefer the green valleys of Kashmir, and have just begun to discover Ladakh as a destination. With this, influx from all over the world, where tourists spend many weeks and months in this region during a single trip, Leh is full of many restaurants and cuisines from all over the world. Israeli, Russian, French, German, Italian and English food (now what is that?) can be easily found replete with garden restaurants and its wood fired ovens. Ladakh is a particular favourite amongst a number of young Israelis who spend many months here, making a number of Israeli region dishes such as Humus a local dish of Ladakh. The local food consists of thukpa (noodle soup), momos (that popular Tibetan snack), yak cheese, khambiri bread, apricot jam and Ladakh's salt+butter based tea, onomatopoeically called gurgur chai. There exists an interesting connection between Ladakh and faraway Goa with both international tourists and restaurant staff. Many of the Maharashtrian, Goan, Bihari and other people in the trade here spend 4 months in Ladakh and move down to Goa during the winter along with their tourist friends!

The High Roads - Pangong Lake

Pangong Lake past the Changla Pass is the world’s highest brackish water lake at 14,256 feet above sea level. A place too easily arrived at is scarcely worth traveling to at all. Consider the ‘tired tourist’ who simply seeks solace in much talked about destinations, where he tends to relax and stroll the evenings away, buy a few souvenirs and sample the cuisine from the endless menu. And there’s the ‘tireless traveler’ - the learning by living person who opts for a destination in order to explore and experience the unknown. The 140 km 4 hour journey from Leh to Pangong Lake was as interesting as the destination, as we spotted yaks, dzos (cross between yak and cow) and pashmina goats (of the famous wool) on the way. A lake that extends for 160 kms, two-thirds of which is in China, and where you have absolutely nobody between you and the Gods! (a la Mansarovar)

Apricots & Tiger Hill
Our way out from Ladakh was on the Srinagar-Leh highway, a journey of @ 16 hours that needs a night halt at Kargil. The Kargil region is known for its apricot orchards and for Tiger Hill and Operation Vijay. The memorial in honour of the Indian soldiers who laid down their lives in the winter of 1998 is worth a visit and is described in detail in my article on military tourism. The journey into the Kashmir valley continues past a place which recorded the lowest temperature on inhabited earth (-64 degrees Celcius), past some amazing moonscapes until Zhojila Pass which overlooks the contrasting, green Kashmir Valley starting from Sonmarg.

Integrating Ladakh and Pune

After our visit to Ladakh, we sponsored a visit by the Ladakhi villagers whom we stayed with, to Pune and Mumbai. Three girls who are a part of the Snow Leopard Conservancy program (covered extensively in a recent National Geographic article) travelled to Pune from Ladakh on their own, experiencing many firsts. First flight, first time in a train, first time seeing Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and the sea! Angmo, Rigzen and Rinchen spent 10 days in and around Pune, Konkan and Tadoba and carried back fond memories of our hustle, bustle and our forests around Sinhagad. The girls displayed amazing confidence to undertake this travel all by themselves and topped it up with a confident presentation about Ladakh and the SLC program to an audience of 50+ people at a Rotary gathering.
We have now converted this into an annual program where we sponsor trips of Ladakhi villagers each year to Pune/Mumbai and promote ground level contact between our two regions. Anybody who wishes to support this endeavour, can write to me, I'll send you details and we'll include you in the program.