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Aasha Khosa
Before Sonam Wangchuk became a face of youth resistance by joining the Cockroach Janata Party's protest in New Delhi, he was best known as a climate activist, innovator, and champion of sustainable living. His work was always deeply rooted in the realities of Ladakh—India's cold desert, where survival depends on conserving every available resource.
I first visited Leh in 1990 to report on the agitation that had erupted over Ladakh people’s anger against the Jammu & Kashmir government and their demand for Union Territory status. Nothing had prepared me for the place. The thin, rarefied air hit my lungs the moment I stepped off the aircraft, and the stark, barren landscape looked like the Moon's surface as I had imagined it in childhood.
Although I had known many Ladakhis during my college days—some of whom later became teachers and doctors in Leh—the region itself felt unlike anything I had experienced. The people...