World`s `highest` village runs dry |
With a backdrop of the snow-capped Himalayas stretched out across a vibrant blue sky, it is hard to dispute the sign as you enter Komik in Spiti valley that declares it to be the world`s highest village with a road.Others also boast the title - from Nepal`s Dho Tarap to Bolivia`s Santa Barbara. But at 4,587 metres (15,050 feet), this remote Buddhist hamlet near India`s border with Tibet is no doubt among the planet`s topmost motorable human settlements. Yet despite its coveted status, life is harsh for the 130 residents of Komik, a quaint collection of whitewashed mud-and-stone houses located in the desolate Spiti Valley. The region is a cold trans-Himalayan desert cut off from the rest of India for six months of the year when snowfall blocks mountain passes. Phone and internet connectivity is almost non-existent. Schools and clinics are a tough trek away. But Spiti`s some 12,000 inhabitants, who eke out a living farming green peas and barley, have a much bigger concern: their main sources of water - streams, rivers, ponds - are drying up. They are used to being in a remote place. But these days the water is not coming like it used to.
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