On thin ice

Reduced snowfall and high temperatures have upturned the lives of people in the Himalayan cold desert

- Akshit Sangomla and Raju Sajwan

LOCATED HIGH in the Himalayas, our lives and livelihoods are intertwined with snow. But the sudden snowfall in January, following a warm December, was unexpected and has left us all in shock,” says Sonam Targi, president of Spiti Civil Society in the town of Kaza, which at 3,650 m above sea level is the largest commercial centre of Spiti Valley. Surrounded by desert-like rugged terrain on all sides, Kaza is the gateway to the Himalayan cold desert that spans Lahaul Spiti and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh in the south to Ladakh in the north.

Targi says the warm winters and unexpected snowfall are symptomatic of a bigger problem: the changing precipitation in the entire cold desert region. Even 15 years ago, November would bring with it the season’s first snowfall in the Valley and by March, there would be a healthy snow cover of 1.5 m. Last winter season (November 2020-April 2021), the snowfall started as late as March and by April, the snow cover was only 0.5 m, which melted almost as soon as it fell, says 49-year-old Tepka, a resident of Komik, the world’s highest motorable village, situated just 18 km from Kaza. He says the changing precipitation is impacting farming, which is already difficult in the harsh climatic conditions of Spiti. The 110 families in Komik grow jowar, vegetables and black peas for personal consumption, and green peas for the market.

April is the sowing season as the soil remains moist from the melting snow. In June and July, the region receives scanty monsoon rainfall which complements the water from the melting snow, before harvesting begins in September. Residents claim even this scanty rainfall has almost halved over the years.