Ice Stupas: These Artificial Glaciers Are Solving Water Crises in The Himalayas

Photo credit: Sonam Wangchuk High in the Himalayas in northern India, at a remote village near Phyang Monastery in Ladakh, stands two gigantic ice cones. They were built last winter by piping water from glaciers and streams high up in the mountains, and allowing the water to freeze in the cold winter nights. All throughout spring, the sun slowly melted the cones providing a steady supply of water for the villagers to irrigate their fields of barley, apples, and other crops. These ice cones are called ice stupas , because of their distinct shape resembling the mound-like Buddhist shrine. If everything goes as planned, there will be fifty more of these ice stupas everywhere in Ladakh providing farmers with tens of millions of liters of water to irrigate their crops with it. The Ladakh region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India is a cold desert. Being located on the leeward side of the Himalayas, monsoon clouds are denied entry leading to a dry and rainless climate. The main source of water here is the winter snowfall on the mountains. Each winter large shelves of ice form at high altitudes and melt throughout the spring, flowing downwards as streams around which civilization thrive on the mountain. But during the two crucial months of April and May, when farmers plant new crops, the streams dry up. By mid-June, as temperature rise sharply, fast melting of the snow and glaciers in the mountains causes an excess of water and even flash flooding at times. By autumn, all farming activities ceases and yet, a small stream continue to flow throughout the winter steadily and wastefully going into the Indus river without being of use to anybody. Phyang monastery in Ladakh.