Kids in Drass: we don’t have no education
Since the 2019 bifurcation of the state, children of nomadic pastoralists who migrate out of Jammu and Kashmir to Ladakh (now two separate union territories), are ignored by the schooling system which is caught up in border red tape. A story for Children's Day
November 14, 2023 | Muzamil Bhat
Bakarwals: caught between summer and snow
In the summer of 2023, as Jammu heated up, pastoralists readied to move up into the higher Himalayas. But unusually cold weather in those grazing grounds held them back. While waiting, many lost livestock to unseasonal, heavy rains enroute
September 16, 2023 | Muzamil Bhat
The travelling teacher of Lidder valley
When pastoral families migrate to the upper Himalayas, they take their young children with them. Travelling teachers like Ali Mohammed follow and ensure that the primary schoolers stay up-to-date and in class. A story in time for Teacher's Day, coming up
September 4, 2023 | Priti David
Bakarwal blankets: out in the cold
This pastoralist community makes a number of items using wool from their animals
May 26, 2023 | Ritayan Mukherjee and Ovee Thorat
Celebrating Saga Dawa in Ladakh
This is an important festival for Tibetan Buddhists here in Hanle River Valley. In the first celebration after the pandemic, six hamlets come together amidst the beating of drums and blowing of trumpets
January 16, 2023 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Fenced out: pastoral lives of Bakarwals
Every year the community ascends to the higher Himalayas in Kashmir in search of grazing grounds. Ongoing fencing of pastures by the military and for tourism, along with a continuing lack of access to basic facilities, is putting their way of life under threat
January 9, 2023 | Ritayan Mukherjee and Ovee Thorat
In the dark: health care in Wazirithal
Pregnant women in an isolated village of Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipore district struggle with erratic power supply and poor public healthcare facilities. Their only hope is an old dai in the village
November 17, 2022 | Jigyasa Mishra
Marking Muharram in Suru valley
The rituals of Muharram observed by Shia Muslims go on for days in Tai Suru village of Ladakh’s Kargil district. For the children, especially girls, it is a chance to meet friends and spend long hours together
August 8, 2022 | Shubhra Dixit
Vegetable trade on the Dal: in troubled waters
The floating gardens on the Dal in Kashmir supply tonnes of vegetables to the market on the lake, but with the administration moving people out of the area, farmers and traders fear for their livelihoods
April 11, 2022 | Muzamil Bhat
In locked-down Kashmir, pigeons take flight
In Kashmir valley, the arrival of summer marks the season of pigeon racing – a sport that is gaining popularity once again
October 14, 2021 | Mir Yasir Mukhtar
Srinagar’s waste-pickers: fear, faith and plastic
Srinagar city generates 500 tons of garbage every day. In addition to municipal workers, an informal workforce of waste-pickers clears a big chunk of it every day, keeping aside fears of Covid and other hazards
September 20, 2021 | Muzamil Bhat
Taking a high road from Jharkhand to Ladakh
Migrant labourers from Jharkhand and other states, who arrived in Ladakh when the second Covid-19 wave began to subside, have been building roads at altitudes of over 10,000 feet in extremely harsh conditions
September 16, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Medical help on thin ice for Dal Lake mohallas
For families living on islands in Srinagar's Dal Lake, most of them farmers, labourers and in the tourism trade, a single and usually shut PHC means they must rely on local chemists who double up as 'doctors'
June 10, 2021 | Adil Rashid
Mohsin will never walk, go to school or play
After moving to the remote Rakh-e-Arth resettlement colony in Srinagar, the Akhoon family has faced severe challenges in accessing healthcare for their son, who has cerebral palsy, and in finding wage work
May 6, 2021 | Kanika Gupta
Predators and pastoralists: Shangdong to stupa
The documentary featured here records voices of Ladakh's pastoral communities. It speaks of how, in harsh conditions, herders try to protect their livestock from wolves, and the changes in this traditional approach
November 4, 2020 | Abhijit Dutta
In Kashmir, no migrants to reap rice harvest
It's been a tough paddy harvest in Central Kashmir. Skilled migrant workers, who charge less than local labourers, were driven out by the lockdowns, and farmers here are thinking of giving up on the crop
October 29, 2020 | Muzamil Bhat
Rocking the boat in Srinagar’s Dal Lake
For the Dal Lake economy, the Covid-19 lockdown during tourist season came right after last year's Article 370 shutdown, and it has left shikarawalas, houseboat owners and shopkeepers with heavy losses and no work
October 3, 2020 | Adil Rashid
Ladakhis stuck in Covid-19 test limbo in Iran
As many as 254 Indian pilgrims from Ladakh, most of them elderly, have been stranded for over a month in the city of Qom in Iran, sparking tension at home
April 2, 2020 | Stanzin Saldon
Keeping warm with Charar-i-Sharief kangris
The kangri, a wicker-covered earthen 'fire-pot' filled with charcoal embers, is in high demand during the severe winters in Kashmir, and the seasonal trade sustains artisans, farmers and labourers
January 31, 2020 | Muzamil Bhat
Withdrawal from the Valley – of another kind
When his drug habit grew, Azlan's parents brought him to the de-addiction centre in Srinagar, where growing numbers of young people are seeking help – while heroin use is spreading 'like an epidemic' in Kashmir
January 24, 2020 | Shafaq Shah
In Pulwama, a different shade of saffron
Saffron farmers in Kashmir are facing a bleak season – an early snowfall, the restrictions imposed after Article 370 was scrapped and a shortage of labourers have hit a trade already in a slump for years
December 31, 2019 | Muzamil Bhat
Srinagar’s shikaras: still waters run deep losses
Though the government has lifted its August advisory to tourists to leave Kashmir, shikarawalas have seen few customers. The six-month tourism season sustains them all year and many are now facing a crisis
November 29, 2019 | Muzamil Bhat
No fruit of this labour: Kashmir's apple trade
Apple orchard owners and traders in Kashmir are facing a huge loss of income amid the uncertainty that has followed the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, which was also the start of their marketing season
November 5, 2019 | Muzamil Bhat
‘Perhaps we made the mountain god angry’
Nomadic Changpa pastoralists at the high grazing grounds of Ladakh find their yak-related economy in a crisis that is driven by major climatic shifts in their fragile mountainous ecosystems
July 22, 2019 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Weaving the story of the pashmina shawl
From Changthangi goats in the Tibetan Plateau to retail stores in Srinagar, the making of the pashmina shawl involves many – pastoralists, wholesalers, spinners, dyers, designers, embroiderers and entrepreneurs
May 27, 2019 | Prabir Mitra
Women who climb mountains, cross deserts
On March 8, International Women’s Day, a PARI photo essay on the remarkable women of three nomadic pastoralist communities – the Changpa of Ladakh, the Brokpa of Arunachal, and the Fakrani Jats in Kachchh
March 8, 2019 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Tosamaidan: guns, meadows, misery
After many deaths among villagers due to an army firing range, as well as ecological damage in an alpine meadow in Budgam, locals fought to ensure the army’s lease was not renewed in 2014. But problems remain
November 21, 2018 | Freny Manecksha
A museum of memories – and missiles
Hunderman, a remote village on the LOC in Kargil, in the crossfire between two hostile nations, has opened its history and heart to the world – its abandoned houses are now a heritage site preserving the past
February 16, 2018 | Stanzin Saldon
Creating colour like the warm light of the sun
Abdul Rashid of Srinagar, Kashmir, with seven decades of experience in the delicate art of dyeing, speaks of how his generation of dyers may be the last, and why they still continue to painstakingly tint yarn
January 18, 2018 | Jayati Saha
Pathways to the clouds driven by poverty
Many of the labourers who build the mountainous roads in Ladakh are migrants from Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand – they brave the extreme weather and risky work because of few livelihood options back home
November 3, 2017 | Ritayan Mukherjee
The Commander Heights of Kargil's economy
This extraordinary market in Kargil, Ladakh – where all but three shops are run by women – has inspirational tales embedded in its origins and success
July 27, 2017 | Stanzin Saldon
'The loom is my love, my legacy'
When he is not farming, Tsering Angchuk of Sneymo village in Ladakh travels with his portable loom to other villages to weave his highly-reputed signature version of a woollen fabric called ‘snamboo’
May 9, 2017 | Stanzin Saldon
The Changpas who make cashmere
The nomadic Changpas of Hanle Valley in Ladakh herd pashmina goats, live in high-altitude pasturelands, and even retain old barter systems – but their ways of life are changing. This photo essay features Changpa Karma Rinchen's community
February 8, 2017 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Clouds of uncertainty
People of the Balti community in Turtuk village, in the high-altitude Nubra Valley near the LoC, are trying to cope with the impact of major shifts in the climate, and changes in their local economy and culture
Sepetember 1, 2016 | Sweta Daga
