Sonam Wangchuk values the young generation a lot. He calls them ‘problem solvers’ and loves meeting them. “I always love to meet problem solvers. They are entrepreneurs and innovators,” said Wangchuk, who was in town to interact with students of JIS at Made in JIS — Edition 2025 at Dhano Dhanyo auditorium on August 5. “Also, I love to meet others who are doing that or aspiring to do that. I look forward to meeting people who, with all the empathy for the people and the end users, are innovating,” adds the Ramon Magsaysay awardee who is known for his out-of-the-box yet simple ideas in bringing about the big change and who is known particularly for his revolutionary Ice Stupa, an artificial glacier that stores winter water in the form of conical ice towers.
Wangchuk’s face lights up as he takes the stage and the otherwise disorderly auditorium focuses all the attention on the man from the Transhimalayas who has an infectious positive vibe. A tete-a-tete with the engineer, innovator and education reformist who talks about building a fertile ecosystem that allows youngsters thrive, what Bengal can do to champion the cause of climate change, and his plans of cooling down the North and South Poles. Excerpts.
While you strongly believe in the power of the youth, there’s a larger debate that says they are not focused and are disoriented.
There’s no problem with the generation, but the system could be better organised to give them fertile ground, which I don’t find. Our education system is not in good order. Our training and skill-building needs to be better so that people who have that passion to solve problems get that, rather than being pushed into things that they don’t passionately love, but do because of social pressures and expectations. India is full of bright minds, but shackled in social and systemic complications. That’s why the best doesn’t come out.
Your base is in Ladakh, and you work on the issue of the melting of glaciers. While glaciers are melting in the mountains, sea level is rising, and land erosion is a reality in Bengal. What do you think Bengal should do?
Bengal cannot do much alone, apart from playing its own role in the global scene. It can appeal to the world as a victim because you are in the coastal areas, which are hit by cyclones. So you, along with those in the high mountains like us, should be ambassadors, should give the SOS call, should be alarm bells to people of the world to urge them to change their ways because you are at the forefront, the witness, and have a special role to convey and communicate. That’s what we need in the mountains. We play a role. Apart from that, climate change is such that it’s global. You can’t do more than that. But then, definitely, what Bengal shouldn’t do is add to the problem of all the people.
Why do you think water conservation should be of utmost importance to us?
Water conservation is important to us all because if things go as they are going, there will be huge problems for human beings and, more importantly, for nature and, therefore, again for humans. You may not know the value of water here, sitting by the ocean with so much rain, but we in the high Himalayan mountains, mountain deserts, know the value of every drop. So it’s time that people here also value every drop like we do.
So, there’s a need to do things on both sides. On the demand side, people who use water should be just and judicious in how they use these precious resources. So that will mean demand-side reduction. And on the supply side, there will be huge problems also, especially if the demand side keeps growing like this. On the supply side, as we lose our glaciers (your water comes from the Tibetan plateau and glaciers are melting there) at the same time, there will be more precipitation, less snow, and fewer glaciers. There will be more rain, which means that there will be no shortage of water. But it will be too much water at the wrong time. So, you will have floods and you will have droughts. Sometimes you will be killed by too much water. Other times, you will be killed by too little water. So that’s what needs to be managed.
Apart from glaciers, forests are the best reservoirs that regulate the flow so that it doesn’t become a flood or a drought. Glaciers do the same as forests. But we are melting the glaciers and cutting the forests. I can’t think of anything more senseless than that. You are turning the floodgates upon yourself, and you are turning the drought gates upon yourself. It’s not for Calcutta alone; it’s for the policies of the nation in New Delhi to conserve the Himalayas. And not just New Delhi, it should be a multinational cooperation. Much of the Himalayas is in Tibet, Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan... and all of these countries must do everything to conserve the Himalayas. Not for the mountains, but for the 2 billion people who depend on the waters.
You use the power of social media in mobilising support. Tell us about your perception of the tool.
It’s all thanks to social media that we could, from the mountains, from the Transhimalayas, connect with the nation on this side and the world at large. The media was tasked to not show it; it was tasked to shadow it. Yet, social media and the millions of people who feel for such causes, by spreading the word, made it a household issue. This would not have been possible 30 years ago. The only reason we could get so much support from people all over is thanks to social media. It has democratised the world in ways that has not happened before.
You keep travelling so much. How do you make sure that you keep your carbon footprint low?
There is a purpose why I travel. I travel to reduce, maybe a thousand times what I may spend. It’s like a little investment for a huge impact. I try my best to not do it, but when I do, I measure it with two scales. One is that my going should have an impact much bigger than the act of going. Second, every time I travel, I have people plant or fund a whole forestation programme. So, that way, I do not only neutralise the carbon footprint I generate, but whatever carbon is emitted by the flight is neutralised by tree plantation.
You keep on constantly innovating. Anything new and interesting that we should look out for?
I am working on many new things. After trying to freeze streams in winter to be useful in summer through artificial glaciers, we are trying to freeze lakes that form the glacial lake. Cloudbursts, floods and droughts are a big calamity of the future, so we are working on how to reduce the risk of such glaciers by freezing them; an extension of artificial glaciers. In future, we may work on refreezing the North Pole, which is melting fast. So we have to have a vision at least to heal the Poles.
Your life has been an incredible journey and an exemplary one. When can we expect your autobiography?
I have that in mind and I intend to do it at some point. But I have not planned it yet.
Currently, your protest is centred around statehood and the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh, and the talks with the government are not fruitful. Are you going to restart your hunger strike?
It depends on whether the government fulfils our demands, then there will be no need. We don’t do it just to do it.