Ladakh Diary: Global warming threat to coldest desert

HEIGHT OF WORRIES: Ladakh is witnessing freak weather conditions for the past 2 years.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

26/11: Terror comes precariously close

Featured Slideshows

Is freak weather the first sign of global warming? Yes, say scientists. CNN-IBN’s Anu Jogesh travelled 13,000 feet above sea level to Ladkah to find that India’s only cold desert could be on the brink as a result of these weather shifts. Here’s the first-person account.

Leh: Our journey through Ladkah to chronicle the outcome of erratic weather takes us to Phyang. It’s one of the 20 towns that were hit by flash floods in July 2006.

Ladakhis had never seen such destruction.

“Some people were crying, some were leaving, some were weeping, I was quite shocked. We had not seen anything like this,” says Stenzin Dorjai, a photographer.

Heavy rains are only the beginning of the problem in Ladakh. The summers have been getting hotter. How else does one explain locusts 15,000 feet above sea level?

Says Pankaj Chandan of the WWF. “We have temperature data available, if you take a look at the past 15 to 20 years, every year the temperature in this region is increasing especially during the summer months. And because these insects are finding very suitable climate here, so they have invaded and are just wiping out whole of the pasture lands."

I walk into a 15th century monastry in Leh. They've installed fans there. But here's the irony: this year, the region also saw its severest winter in 20 years.

Scientists say one of the first signs of global warming is a trend of freak weather. As a result of the unexpected and excess water, heat and snow, people have lost their homes, their crop and their cattle.