The people of Ladakh have started raising their voice against Sonam Wangchuk, an individual recently in the thick of the news due to the CJP protest. His much media hyped Ice Stupa in the region is also under deep scrutiny.
Ladakhis, through The Phyang Welfare Society, Ladakh has welcomed cancellation of allotment orders of the HIAL land. Now one may wonder what HIAL is?. The HIAL stands for Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh, which is the brainchild of Sonam Wangchuk.
But then the big question is why are the Sonam Wangchuk’s fellow Ladakhis rejoicing withdrawal of 1076 kanal of land, earlier allotted to HIAL & there are valid reasons for it.
The society members argue that the land could be used for public welfare works such as Eklavya school, sainik school or Sindhu central university rather then giving to a private institution. It has now also asked for taking away 174 Kanals of land that were illegally encroached by Wangchuk’s HIAL. This encroachment has also been confirmed by the revenue department’s records.
Further, the respectable members of the society have also raised the issue of Wangchuk’s HIAL diverting centuries old irrigation water stream to barren land for a construction of much talked about Wangchuk’s ice stupa.
One easily remembers how Sonam Wangchuk’s Ice Stupa was given much media hype when it came into existence. He claims this to be an innovative way of storing water in the form of artificial glaciers. These glaciers promises to help Ladakh cope up with its water challenges particularly during spring and early summer, when natural water resources in the region has little volume of water.
HIAL claims it to be an ingenious artificial glacier system aimed to overcome the prevailing water crisis in the region. But then the Ice stupa was a farce. The villagers never benefitted from it. It rather added to their hardships. Even several academic studies worldwide have time and again expressed their concerns over the veracity of these ice towers.
The diversion of water led to further hardship to the farmers of Phyang and Phey villages. Even the local authorities understood it and issued orders for withdrawal of diversion on May 8th 2017 but then Sonam Wangchuk’s HIAL after some time disregarding the law yet again diverted the water to the stupa. This amount to gross violation of compliance of administrative directions.
Phyang Welfare Society has now appealed for a permanent restoration of the original course of water in the large interests of farmers, which they say is the backbone of the livelihood of Phyang & Phey villages. They had even written to the district administration on Sept 4th 2025 in this regard.
But it seems Sonam Wangchuk’s political role has completely taken over his environmental accountability. But farmers of this cold desert region of the country are not ready to relent.
