The Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE), along with other people including some wings of the state government, has been able to bring out about 100 remote villages in the Ladakh region, especially in the sub-division of Zanskar, from darkness to light by using solar nano-grid technology.
Some of these villages have been witnessing sub-zero temperatures, and for them to have electricity during the winters has been a real feat. In the current winter season, one of the remotest villages of Kargil district, Batambiss, woke up to light. The villagers said that they are very thankful to the initiative of the GHE and the district authorities for bringing electricity to their villages. Batambiss village has a population of 700 people who remain cut off for more than six months in a year due to heavy snowfall. The temperatures during the winters go up to minus 40 degree Celsius.
The villages were electrified by solar energy in three days by the efforts of the social enterprise Global Himalayan Expedition and the Kargil Renewable Energy Development Authority (KREDA) and above all the EICHER Group Foundation. According to the locals, they were given 450 energy efficient DC LED lights with three days of back-up in case of cloudy weather. These social groups have been very active under Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in the Ladakh region to bring access to energy and education to the remote villages, especially in Kargil and Zanskar. Talking to The Sunday Guardian, officers of KREDA said that they have been working for the past three years with the Global Himalayan Expedition and EICHER Foundation and have been able to change the lives of people in dozens of villages which had no access to either energy or education.