Tourism in Ladakh
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link titleLadakh (Ladakhi:ལདཁ , Hindi: लद्दाख़, Urdu: لدّاخ; IPA: [ləd̪.d̪ɑːx]) , a word which means "land of high passes", is a region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir of Northern India sandwiched between the Karakoram mountain range to the north and the Himalayas to the south. The Indian portion of Ladakh is composed of the Leh and Kargil districts. The Leh district is the largest district of India, covering more than half the area of Jammu and Kashmir, of which it is the eastern part.
Adventure tourism in Ladakh started in the 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, it was not uncommon for British officials to undertake the 14 stage trek from Srinagar to Leh as part of their annual leave. Agencies were set up in Srinagar and Shimla to specialise sport related activities — hunting, fishing and trekking. A large retinue of porters would carry huge canvas tents and collapsible string beds. This era is recorded in Arthur Neves The Tourist's Guide to Kashmir, Ladakh and Skardo, first published in 1911[1]. Today, about 18,000 tourists visit Ladakh every year. Bounded by two mighty mountain ranges, it is a popular place for adventure tourism. The well-preserved Tibetan-Buddhist culture makes it even more attractive. The main corridor for accessing the area has shifted from the Zoji-La pass and Kargil route from Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley, to the high altitude Manali-Leh Highway from Himachal Pradesh. The latter is open only between July and September, when snow is cleared from the road. There is one airport, situated at Leh, from which there are multiple daily flights to Delhi on Jet Airways and Indian, and weekly flights to Srinagar.
Buses run from Leh to the surrounding villages. Trucks often stop for hitchhikers, who are usually expected to pay half the bus fare. There is a bit less than 1000 km of paved roads in Ladakh. The Manali-Leh-Srinagar road makes up about half of that, the remainder being spurs off it. For the traveler with a number of months it is possible to trek from one end of Ladakh to the other, or even from places in Himachal Pradesh. The large number of trails and the limited number of roads allows one to string together routes that have road access often enough to restock supplies, but avoid walking on motor roads almost entirely.
Among the popular places of tourist interest include Leh, Drass valley, Suru valley, Kargil, Zanskar, Zangla, Rangdum, Padum, Phugthal, Sani, Stongdey, Shyok Valley, Sankoo, Salt Valley. Popular treks are Manali to Ladakh, the Nubra valley, the Indus valley, Markha valley, Ladakh monastery trek, South Zanskar, Trans-Zanskar Expedition, Spiti to Ladakh, Spiti to Pitok to Hemis, Rupshu, the Great Salt lakes, Chadar Ice trek, Padum-phugtal, Padam to Dracha, Panikhar to Heniskot, Padum to Manali , Lamayuru - Martselang, Lamayuru - Alchi, Kala Pattar trek, Pahalgam to Suru valley, Kinnaur -Spiti-Ladakh, Tsomoiri-Lake Trek, and Manali - Leh trek. [2]
[edit] Maps
General traveling maps showing the roads and tourist sites are commonly available in India and abroad.
The best quality trekking maps are nowhere near the quality of maps covering trekking areas of Europe or North America. Note that high quality maps of the border regions of India are technically illegal in India for security reasons, your map may be confiscated if you allow security personnel to see it. (despite very high quality maps of Indian J&K and the LoC being available from the Survey of Pakistan in Islamabad!)
- Survey of India produces a very out of date (early 1980's) trekking map of J&K; it's cheap, and could be useful for planning a route with an experanced guide.
- US Army Map Service. (1:250000) - produces out of date (1950's and 60's) topographic maps of whole India, easily available on the Internet.
- Soviet Military Topographic Maps (1:200000 & 1:100000) - maps produced in the 1970's and 1980's which are now easily available on the Internet but expensive. They provide a good information but all the labels are in Cyrillic script limiting their use.
- Artou (1:300000) - based on satellite imagery. Until recently the best available, it is satifactory for pre-trek route planning, but not good for navigation. A pirated version is available in Leh. This map was also known under the name of Olizane map until recently but is now more edited, replaced by the new "Ladakh Zanskar Trekking Map Series" of the Editions Olizane (see below).
- Leomann (1:200000) - may have better scale than the Artou, but it actually contains less information and is less accurate; however the series does cover a lot more of Ladakh and elsewhere in the Himalayas.
- Trekking Map of Ladakh by Sonam Tsetan (approx scale 1:600000) is very accurate for what it shows: the trails, village names, and water courses. It lacks topography, but it is a very useful planning tool. It's available in Leh for less than 200 Rp.
- Ladakh Zanskar Trekking Map Series by Editions Olizane (1:150000) - recently introduced, and looks like it could be an excellent topographic map, with lots of detail (accuracy to be confirmed).
[edit] Notes and References
- ^ Garry Weare, Trekking in the Indian Himalaya, 4th Edition, Lonely Planet, 2002
- ^ Leh Ladakh treks
