Years back, on a harsh winter morning in Ladakh in the northernmost Himalayas in India, a young and curious boy in a remote mountain village of the cold desert observed water coming out of a semi-frozen pipe, collecting in a small crater on the ground and freezing, just like a glacier.
A few decades later, in 1986, the boy, ChewangNorphel — as a civil engineer with the Jammu and Kashmir Rural Development Department — took inspiration from his childhood observations and made a breakthrough by devising the first artificial glacier in picturesque Leh, thereby solving a water crisis faced by the local community, of which at least 80 per cent were farmers growing barley and wheat.
Spurred by the success of his experiment, he went on to create 17 such artificial glaciers across Ladakh, thereby earning his nickname — “The Ice Man of India”. Most of his projects received financial aid from several state-run programmes, the army and various national and international NGOs.
Now an 80-year-old source of inspiration, Norphel’s journey was not easy, as people initially used to laugh at him and called him “pagal” (crazy). But that did not deter him as all he saw was a grave problem which needed a solution that he could provide. “Ladakh has a distinct climate where you can get frost bite and heat stroke at the same time. About 80 per cent of the population consists of farmers and their biggest issue is unavailability of water.