By profession a civil engineer but by mind and heart a completely intelligent and wise man who have determinedly tried to help his native people by using his intelligence and good intentions. He is Chewang Norphel a 79 years old retired civil engineer he was born in 1936 and belonged to a farmer’s family he had also served for 36 years in his working tenure but had to leave the job due to his bead health. He did not enjoy sitting idle at home and wanted to do something for his people and his native place. He was very aware of the problems of the farmers and other people residing in his village that there is a huge scarcity of water at their place.
The farmers particularly had to face a lot of scarcity especially at the time of sowing during which the water is highly needed. About 80% of the population of the village is involved in farming and the main source for irrigation was the water coming from the melting of natural glaciers and snow but due to increasing global warming those natural glaciers tend get melt very early and at the time of need farmers had to face scarcity of water. Thus, this problem jolted Chewang from within and he decided to do something to sort out this issues. and he came up with the idea of creating Artificial Glaciers in the village he thought that if the water of melting snow and natural glaciers could be stored then that water would not go waste and would be highly useful for the farmers when they would start farming particular in the sowing season.
Now was the time to implement this very idea thus Chewang began his experiment initially at the Phutse village where with his all experience of civil engineering created canals in order to divert the water from the main area to the small casement areas located 4 kms away from the village. Today he has been acknowledged as the “Ice Man of India” and has created 10 artificial glaciers to help the people to deal with the scarcity of water in Ladakh. The smallest glacier he had created is 500 ft. Long in Umla and the largest is 2kms long situated in Phutse. Due to his determined efforts today the agricultural production has witnessed a rapid increase and henceforth the income of the people has also been increased. This has also led to the decline in migration to cities villagers respect him too much and feel deep regards towards him. Chewang Norphel has also taught skills of engineering to the local become in order to become self-sufficient. Many people have got their own works to do today and they owe to Norphel from the bottom of their hearts. Kudos! This is ice man of India, we are proud of him!
The farmers particularly had to face a lot of scarcity especially at the time of sowing during which the water is highly needed. About 80% of the population of the village is involved in farming and the main source for irrigation was the water coming from the melting of natural glaciers and snow but due to increasing global warming those natural glaciers tend get melt very early and at the time of need farmers had to face scarcity of water. Thus, this problem jolted Chewang from within and he decided to do something to sort out this issues. and he came up with the idea of creating Artificial Glaciers in the village he thought that if the water of melting snow and natural glaciers could be stored then that water would not go waste and would be highly useful for the farmers when they would start farming particular in the sowing season.
Now was the time to implement this very idea thus Chewang began his experiment initially at the Phutse village where with his all experience of civil engineering created canals in order to divert the water from the main area to the small casement areas located 4 kms away from the village. Today he has been acknowledged as the “Ice Man of India” and has created 10 artificial glaciers to help the people to deal with the scarcity of water in Ladakh. The smallest glacier he had created is 500 ft. Long in Umla and the largest is 2kms long situated in Phutse. Due to his determined efforts today the agricultural production has witnessed a rapid increase and henceforth the income of the people has also been increased. This has also led to the decline in migration to cities villagers respect him too much and feel deep regards towards him. Chewang Norphel has also taught skills of engineering to the local become in order to become self-sufficient. Many people have got their own works to do today and they owe to Norphel from the bottom of their hearts. Kudos! This is ice man of India, we are proud of him!