Ladakh is one of the most difficult terrain in the world. Leh, the central city of Ladakh region is at an altitude of 11500 feet above mean sea level. Although Leh does have an airport but air travel is restricted to few people. To reach Ladakh one can either go via road from Srinagar- Kargil or another road from Manali via series of high altitude passes.
I was fortunate enough to visit the place just few months back and one thing I can confirm from the trip is that this is the most beautiful region you would ever find anywhere in the world.
The region receives very less rainfall in the entire year as he rain-clouds do not cross over the Himalayas and hence it is an high altitude desert. Ladakh mostly has people living in small villages with little mud houses. When a calamity like cloud burst and flash floods happen in the region, then the amount of destruction is unbelievable.
As per the reports we read and hear on TV channels, entire old town has been washed away, roads and bridges have been washed away by water. At least 150 people have been found dead, thousand injured and many are missing. Typical tourist season in Ladakh region extends from end of May till middle of September. Considering this is the peak tourist season in the region, there are thousands of tourists stuck in the region. Regions like Nubra, Pangong and Zanskar have many tourists at this time of the year for trekking, river rafting, mountain climbing and other adventurous activities.
On top of this the weather is bad and the heavy rainfall has broken the record of last 100 years. The rescue efforts are minimal as roads leading to Leh are still not usable as bridges have been broken in various places. There is a general scarcity of food, vegetables, milk etc. Air force have deployed several planes and rescue material and help has reached the region but it would be a humongous task to restore the region’s roads, bridges, houses and other infrastructure.
Hearing the news, lots of tourists would now cancel their plans to visit the beautiful place, this in turn will hurt the economy of the place as well as the entire region runs on tourism. The hotels, the adventure guides all would be hurt by this. The Indian army and its BRO ( Border Roads Organization) unit can construct the washed away roads and bridges, this process will go over couple of months. The time window is short as by September end the killing winder season would begin and then it would be difficult to do any kind of work in region as the entire region is covered in snow by October and even most of the locale people migrate to other parts of country during the winter.
What Ladakh needs is tourists to stay away from it for now because of the calamity BUT more than that it needs its tourists back from next season as tourism is this region’s lifeline, without that the region’s economy will not survive. Before that its needs its roads and bridges and houses back. Indian army has one big task ahead of it
Irony is that the Indian Army which is a no-no in parts of Kashmir valley and are considered as intruders by the Kashmiri locals and is protested against, is entrusted with task of rehabilitation of the entire Ladakh region, a part of Jammu and Kashmir state.
Hopefully the region will be revived soon, roads will be made, bridges will be built and tourist will return next year but it will be a long time till the scars of this mishap will be forgotten.
Yeh Mera India 