the greening of leh

went to leh earlier in the month after about 10 years... the last time i was there was when i was fresh out of college... and i remember that i had shot seven rolls of film - criss-crossed the entire region... went to zanskar and to pangongse ... indulged in some sliding-down the snow covered slopes at changla and spent the entire night after that in the freezing cold at an army camp with a sever altitude-sickness-induced headache.
have been to ladakh a few times after that but never to leh, so it came as a big surprise when the plane entered the valley and one could see huge patches of green on one side of the indus... so the dam that was nearing completion then has probably started channeling water for irrigation and that should be, in normal circumstances, a good thing.
but over the past few years the increased vegetation and greenery has led to increasing precipitation, specially in the summers ie in the form of rain. and this has led to an even more severe problem - all of that region's cultural and religious heritage is at risk - because all the monasteries and palaces are built of mud!
quite a catch 22 situation - if the monasteries are rebuilt with stone and brick - it could never be the same thing again... are we witnessing an end to an era...
when i was there first the entire market comprised a few shop/resturants - not more than 10 or 15... haqndful of vehicles and a very sleeping air. all that has changed now... leh would have in the vicinity of a thousand shops, more vehicles than you can keep track of, traffic jams, crowds and the varied assortment of noises that accompanies such a scene... reminds me of what manali was when i had gone there after school to what manali has now become (was there for the raid a couple of years back after a long time)...
that is not the end of it... all along the indus, where there used to be barren land and a road following the river ... say on the way to the hemis gompa - all u would come across would be these four or five villages each with a handful of houses... now that entire stretch of road has houses on either side...
and you see more foreign tourists in leh than u see local people...
so all those who want to see ladakh the way it is said to be.. pack your bags and get there soon or all you will see is a culture and heritage that has been trampled upon by the forces of civilisation and development... let us welcome leh and ladakh to modern, independent and free india...