About Project Ladakh
Standing 14,000 feet above sea level in the Zanskar valley of Ladakh, Kashmir, I absorbed the reality of Yougar village that stood in complete darkness with no access to India’s national electricity grid. This image was in stark contrast to the lives of the urban privileged, where one could simply call upon Alexa to turn on the lights.
In 2019, I initiated ‘Project.Ladakh’ with the objective of bringing clean energy solutions to villages in inaccessible higher reaches of the Himalayas. I started with the installation of Solar Microgrids and Solar Water Heaters, with the eventual goal of enabling these communities to achieve zero carbon status.
Our endeavour is not just to raise funds for this initiative but rather to physically trek to these villages, engage with the locals and as much as possible do the installations ourselves in collaboration with the villages so as to enable a sense of ownership
Giving agency to the villages over their energy generation making them less dependent on outside is extremely powerful and enabling.
