“A remote Indian village is responding to global warming-induced
water shortages by creating large masses of ice, or “artificial
glaciers,” to get through the dry spring months. (See a map of
the region.) Located on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau,
the village of Skara in the Ladakh region of India is not a
common tourist destination. “It’s beautiful, but really remote
and difficult to get to,” said Amy Higgins, a graduate student
at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies who
worked on the artificial glacier project. “A lot of people, when
I met them in Delhi and I said I was going to Ladakh, they
looked at me like I was going to the moon,” said Higgins, who is
also a National Geographic grantee. People in Skara and
surrounding villages survive by growing crops such as barley for
their own consumption and for sale in neighboring towns. In the
past, water for the crops came from meltwater originating in
glaciers high in the Himalaya.” Read more: National Geographic