India · BBC Technology
The artificial ice pyramids saving India's mountain villages
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At an altitude of almost 4,000m (13,000ft) and receiving almost no rainfall, the Himalayan village of Sakti is a hostile place to be a farmer.
Key facts
- During the winter of 2025, Acres of Ice and the local government ran 10 AIR projects across Ladakh
- At an altitude of almost 4,000m (13,000ft) and receiving almost no rainfall, the Himalayan village of Sakti is a hostile place to be a farmer
- Ladakh has a brutal, single-cultivation season," says Gelak Gutme, who has been growing wheat, peas and potatoes there for most of his 65 years
- Because traditional water systems are failing, Leh-Ladakh has become a hub for innovative, grassroots hydraulic engineering," says Murtaza Ali, executive engineer in the Irrigation and Flood Control
Summary
"Ladakh has a brutal, single-cultivation season," says Gelak Gutme, who has been growing wheat, peas and potatoes there for most of his 65 years. "It is a desert with an extreme climate," he says. "For generations, small glaciers sitting right above the valleys acted like frozen water towers, holding onto water all winter and releasing it right when spring farming began," explains Lobzang Fardod, who is a member of a local water management committee in Ladakh. "Now that those lower glaciers have completely vanished into a desert of dry rock, there is nothing left at the top to melt," he says.