Young Innovators Strive To Tackle Problems In Ladakh

These changemakers were nurtured through the Naropa Fellowship to work towards building a sustainable environment in Ladakh and the greater Himalayas.

The first cohort of the Naropa fellowship instituted last year, was a diverse bunch united by their vision to improve the conditions in the Ladakhi and Himalayan region. Be it tackling the growing plastic waste problem, reviving the local culture, imparting skills training, promoting eco-tourism, or providing better income opportunities to the nomadic tribes, the 52 fellows of the cohort comprising engineers, environmentalists, writers, designers, lawyers, architects, executed ideas to address all these challenges and more.

For Aditi Sharma, a journalism graduate from Uttarakhand, and Nikita Sharma, a lawyer from Solan, Himachal Pradesh, the realisation of a gap in the documentation of local stories from the area led them to establish Storyboard Himalaya – an archive of stories from the land, of its people, folklore and culture.