Who is Sonam Wangchuk, the Ladakh activist detained in Delhi for 36 hours?

Ladakh climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was released from custody after nearly 36 hours on Wednesday (Oct 2). Wangchuk was detained by the Delhi police at the Singhu border on Monday (Sep 30) after he along with 150 protesters marched to the national capital from Ladakh.

Who is Sonam Wangchuk?

Sonam Wangchuk is an engineer and education reformer who hails from Ladakh. He is known for his innovations in sustainable technology. Wangchuk also designed the SECMOL campus, which runs on solar power and is free from using any fossil fuels even in cooking, heating and lighting.

Wangchuk was born in 1966 near Alchi in Ladakh’s Leh district. He enrolled in a school in Srinagar at the age of nine after his father Sonam Wangyala, a Congress politician, was stationed in Srinagar. However, he did not fit in due to language differences and moved to Delhi alone in 1977, where he pleaded his case to Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya’s principal.

He went against his father’s wishes to pursue a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Srinagar in 1987. Hethen started the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), where he launched Operation New Hope in collaboration with the government and villagers to bring educational reforms. He also went for Earthen Architecture at Craterre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France, in 2011.

Wangchuk has been involved with various NGOs and worked as an editor of Ladags Melong, the only print magazine in Ladakh. He is known for his sustainable innovations like Ice Stupa, which creates an artificial glacier for storing water, and mobile solar-powered tents for the Indian Army.

Wangchuk gainedlimelight in 2009 with Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, which is inspired by his life story. While many refer to him as "The real life Phunsukh Wangdu", he denies it.

What is Wangchuk fighting for?

Sonam Wangchuk launched a ‘Delhi Chalo Padyatra’ on September 1, demanding constitutional safeguards for Ladakh. The march was set to culminate at Rajghat on October 2, the day of Gandhi Jayanti, but Wangchuk and his followers were detained at the Delhi-Haryana border on the night of September 30.

Their key demands are the inclusion of Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, granting law-making powers to the locals to protect their land and defend their cultural identity.

Previously in March, he went on a fast-unto-death to demand constitutional safeguards. He advocates protection from industrial and mining lobbies in Ladakh and also started a 21-day Climate Fast.

(With inputs from agencies)