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On Monday night, police detained the climate activist Sonam Wangchuk along with around 150 others as they marched towards Delhi. Among the protestors’ demands are statehood for Ladakh, and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the constitution, which will guarantee the region a greater degree of autonomy.
 
The government’s crackdown on the protestors is unsurprising given the opaque nature of development work it is planning in Ladakh. This is strikingly clear in the case of a colossal renewable energy project that will take up a total of 250 square kilometres, and will transmit electricity more than 700 km to Haryana, where it will be integrated into the national grid. As Vaishnavi Rathore and Safwat Zargar found, the government has ignored anxieties of locals over the loss of land and livelihoods, as well as warnings from environmentalists, to go ahead with the project. Details about the project and its proponents, meanwhile, remain shrouded in secrecy.
Zargar recounted that reporting the story was a challenge given the region’s difficult physical terrain. “The area is at least 200 km from the nearest power centre, which is Leh city,” he said. “Getting back to contacts was not possible because of a lack of mobile connectivity or phones.” He added, “I had to get oxygen at a local health centre multiple times because it is a high-altitude area.”
 
Rathore, meanwhile, explained that the lack of information available about the project was frustrating. “On ground, political representatives told us that the environmental impact assessment had been completed, yet it was not made public,” she said. “When we asked for this information via RTI, neither the environment ministry, nor the renewable energy ministry, nor the Solar Energy Corporation of India, had it.”
 
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In Ladakh, a massive energy project is shrouded in mystery

With Ladakh under central rule, locals say their concerns about loss of land and livelihood have gone unheard.

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Ajay Krishnan
Senior Editor

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