A Land of Distant Dreams

Siddharth Behl’s decade-long documentation of the Changpas unveils the perseverance of a community on the threshold of an ecological collapse.

- Nilofer Khan

Siddharth Behl is a documentary photographer based out of New Delhi. He has worked for numerous organisations including The Guardian, Rotary International, UNICEF, Christian Aid, amongst others. You can view his projects at www. siddharthbehl.com.

The high altitude plains of Eastern Ladakh are home to a nomadic tribe called the Changpas. At an unsympathetic altitude of nearly 15,000 feet, the Changpas lived in harmony against unpredictable winds and heavy snow that hovered upon their livelihood—a multi-dimensional pastoral system. In 2013, a catastrophic snowfall and plummeting temperatures had cut off all access to winter pastures—killing 20,000 livestock due to starvation, with ninety percent of the young stillborn or dying.

Back then, in affiliation with local humanitarian partners, I gained the opportunity to document the crisis in the cold and aloof region. While the images narrated the impact of catastrophe for next few months, the situation in time later started to mellow down leaving behind a huge untreated scar of cultural and environmental damage. It struck me that as a photographer, I need to work on this individually. I tried to pool in resources, find some funds, anything I could do to carry this project forward. Climate change is a silent crisis. While it gradually withers the condition in micro seconds, it’s escalating magnitude and threat appears ballistically in a long overdue course of time.