SONAM WANGCHUK FROM ENGINEER TO HUNGER STRIKE - Sonam Wangchuk From Indian engineer, activist, innovator, education reformer, and environmentalist to hunger strike regarding failures education system

 

 

SONAM WANGCHUK FROM ENGINEER TO HUNGER STRIKE  - Sonam Wangchuk From Indian engineer, activist, innovator, education reformer, and environmentalist to hunger strike regarding failures education system

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Sonam Wangchuk born on 1 September 1966 is an Indian engineer, activist, innovator, education reformer, and environmentalist. He is the founding-director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), which was founded in 1988 by a group of students who struggled with the public education stystem. He was also known for designing the SECMOL campus that runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating.

Wangchuk was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope in 1994, a collaboration of the government, village communities and the civil society to bring reforms in the government school system. He was inspired by artificial glaciers designed and constructed by Padma Shri awardee Chewang Norphel, in creating his own version known as Ice Stupa technique, used for storing winter water in the form of a cone-shaped ice heap.

Wangchuk's contributions to Ladakh’s education sector and climate-related challenges, and his innovative solutions to local problems have earned him numerous accolades. As of 2025, he has received around 15 awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (2018), the title of Eminent Technologist of the Himalayan Region by IIT Mandi (2018), and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2017).

Wangchuk was born in 1966 near Alchi in the Leh district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (now in the Indian union territory of Ladakh) to Indian National Congress politician Sonam Wangyal and Tsering Wangmo. He was not enrolled in a school until the age of 9, as there were no schools in his village. His mother, Tsering Wangmo, taught him all the basics in his own mother tongue until that age.

In 1975, his father, Sonam Wangyal, was elected into the Jammu and Kashmir Government where he became a minister for the Indian Congress party. At the age of 9, he was taken to Srinagar and enrolled in a school there. Since he looked different compared to the other students, he would get addressed in a language that he did not understand, due to which his lack of responsiveness was mistaken for him being stupid. He recalls this period as the darkest part of his life. Unable to bear the treatment, in 1977, he has escaped alone to Delhi, where he pleaded his case to the school principal at a Kendriya Vidyalaya.

Wangchuk completed his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology Srinagar then REC Srinagar in 1987.

Due to differences with his father over the choice of engineering stream, he had to finance his own education. He also went for two years of higher studies in Earthen Architecture at Craterre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France, in 2011.

Career - In 1988, after his graduation, Wangchuk (with his brother and five peers) started Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). After experimenting with school reforms in government high school at Suspol, SECMOL launched Operation New Hope in collaboration with the government education department and the village population.

From June 1993 until August 2005, Wangchuk also founded and worked as the editor of Ladakh's only print magazine Ladags Melong. In 2001, he was appointed to be an advisor for the education in the Hill Council Government. In 2002, together with other NGO heads, he founded Ladakh Voluntary Network (LVN), a network of Ladakhi NGOs, and served in its executive committee as the secretary till 2005. He was appointed to the Drafting Committee of the Ladakh Hill Council Government’s Vision Document Ladakh 2025 and entrusted with the formulation of the policy on Education and Tourism in 2004. The document was formally launched by Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India in 2005. In 2005, Wangchuk was appointed as a member in the National Governing Council for Elementary Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

From 2007 to 2010, he worked as an education advisor for MS, a Danish NGO working to support the Ministry of Education for education reforms.

In late 2013, Wangchuk invented and built a prototype of the Ice Stupa which is an artificial glacier that stores the wasting stream waters during the winters in the form of giant ice cones or stupas, and releases the water during late spring as they start melting, which is the perfect time when the farmers need water. He was appointed to the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education in 2013. In 2014, he was appointed to the Expert panel for framing the J&K State Education Policy and Vision Document. Since 2015, Wangchuk has started working on establishing Himalayan Institute of Alternatives. He is concerned about how most of the Universities, especially those in the mountains have become irrelevant to realities of life.

In 2016, Wangchuk initiated a project called FarmStays Ladakh, which provides tourists to stay with local families of Ladakh, run by mothers and middle-aged women. The project was officially inaugurated by Chetsang Rinpoche on 18 June 2016.

Innovation - Wangchuk has been helping in designing and overseeing the construction of several passive solar mud buildings in mountain regions like Ladakh, Sikkim and Nepal so that energy savings principles are implemented on a larger scale. Even in cold winters with temperatures dropping to −30 °C (−22 °F), his solar-powered school, built with the rammed earth, keeps the students warm.

Led by Wangchuk, SECMOL has won the International Terra Award for the best building in July 2016 at the 12th World Congress on Earthen Architecture in Lyon, France. The rammed earth 'Big Building', located at SECMOL. The campus was built using simple, low-cost traditional techniques on principles of passive solar architecture. The building comprises a big solar-heated teaching hall, along with several rooms for the students and other classrooms.

Passive solar buildings such as those promoted by Wangchuk employ orientation, thermal mass, insulation and solar gain to reduce conventional heating requirements in cold climates, principles that are widely recognised in sustainable building design.

Wangchuk founded the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL) with Gitanjali J Angmo after his significant experience with the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), which he established in 1988. His motivation for starting HIAL stems from a desire to address the educational and developmental challenges specific to Ladakh's unique geographical and cultural context.

Wangchuk's establishment of HIAL is a continuation of his commitment to educational reform in Ladakh, building on the foundations laid by SECMOL. His vision is not only to provide higher education but also to create a sustainable future for the region by equipping youth with the skills necessary to thrive in their unique environment.

In January 2014, Wangchuk started a project called the Ice Stupa. His aim was to find a solution to the water crisis being faced by the farmers of Ladakh in the critical planting months of April and May before the natural glacial melt waters start flowing. By the end of February in 2014, they had successfully built a two-storey prototype of an ice stupa which could store roughly 150,000 litres (33,000 imp gal; 40,000 US gal) of winter stream water which nobody wanted at the time.

In 2015, when Ladakh faced a crisis due to a landslide which blocked the Phugtal river in Zanskar and caused the formation of 15 km-long (9.3 mi) lake, which became a huge threat for the downstream population, Wangchuk proposed to use a siphon technique to drain the lake and water jet erosion to safely cut the edges instead of blasting the lake as was being planned. However, his advice was ignored and blasting work was carried on. On 7 May 2015, the lake finally burst into a flash flood which destroyed 12 bridges and many fields.

In 2016, Wangchuk started applying the Ice Stupa technique for disaster mitigation at high altitude glacier lakes. He was invited by the Government of Sikkim to apply siphon technique for another dangerous lake in the state. In September 2016, he led a three-week expedition to the South Lhonak Lake in North-West Sikkim, which had been declared dangerous for the last few years. His team camped for two weeks at the lake, amidst rain and snow, installing the first phase of a siphoning system to drain the lake to a safer level until other measures were taken up.

In late 2016, the idea started gaining traction from the authorities in the Swiss Alps. Wangchuk was invited by the president of Pontresina, a municipality in the Engadine valley, Switzerland to build Ice Stupas to add to their winter tourism attractions. In October 2016, Wangchuk and his team went to the Swiss Alps and started building the first Ice Stupa of Europe, together with their Swiss partners.

In February 2018, a group of young, local sculptors and artists from Ladakh built a 10-foot-high (3.0 m) ice stupa. It was made entirely of ice and it took them 25 days to complete. As the stupa was housed inside another giant ice tower (ice stupa artificial glacier), it was made at a very low temperature of around −12 °C (10 °F).

Mobile solar-powered tents - In February 2021, Wangchuk developed solar-powered tents for the Indian army. Each tent can accommodate around 10 soldiers. According to Wangchuk, he came up with this innovation when he learned that around 50,000 Indian soldiers were working in harsh weather conditions in high-altitude areas. This invention traps the heat energy during the daytime and utilizes this energy to keep the tent warm during night.

In 2013, on repeated requests from students community of Ladakh, Wangchuk helped launch the New Ladakh Movement (NLM), a social campaign and Ladakh's version of Green Party with the aim of working for sustainable education, environment and economy.

It also aimed at uniting all local political leaders under one banner for the growth and development of Ladakh. Eventually, the members decided to make it into a non-political social movement.

Boycott of Chinese products - In June 2020, in response to the India-China border skirmishes at Galwan, Wangchuk appealed to Indians to use their "wallet power" and boycott Chinese products. The appeal received widespread media coverage and garnered support from several prominent celebrities.

On 26 January 2023, to highlight the effects of climate change on the fragile ecosystem of Ladakh and to demand its protection under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Wangchuk attempted to go on a fast at the Khardungla pass. However, the authorities allegedly prevented him from going to Khardungla by putting him under house arrest, restricting his movement, as well as restricting people from visiting him. The Ladakh police denied the charges, stating that he had not been given permission to enter Khardung La pass, citing temperatures being unsuitable for the fast, at less than -40°C.

 

In March 2024, he started a fast-unto-death to press for his demand for constitutional safeguards for the Union Territory and protection of Ladakh from industrial and mining lobbies. Additionally, he began a 21-day Climate Fast hunger strike for giving statehood to Union Territory Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule. On 30 September 2024, during his walk by foot from Ladakh to Delhi for their demands, Wangchuk and his supporters were detained by Delhi Police at the Singhu border and were released on 2 October 2024.

Cockroach Janta Party protest - Since the formation of the Cockroach Janta Party in May 2026 following controversial remarks made by the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, who used the terms "parasites" and "cockroaches" while reprimanding a lawyer over a plea seeking Senior Advocate designation, Wangchuk has stepped forward in support of CJP movement describing himself as an "honorary cockroach".

Wangchuk has been a prominent figure at the CJP  organised protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over the NEET 2026 Paper leak and CBSE On-Screen Marking irregularity. Since 28 June, Wangchuk began an indefinite hunger strike along with six students from All India Students' Association (AISA).  Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah compared his hunger strike with the Anna Hazare Jan Lokpal movement and demanded the central government to start talks with Wangchuk.  On 18 July, Wangchuk was forcibly removed from the protest site by police and taken to Safdarjung Hospital.

Arrest  On 24 September 2025, a protest in Leh led to the BJP office being torched and the premises of the Ladakh Hill Council being vandalised. The protest culminated in a police crackdown, during which officers opened fire on the protestors, killing four civilians and injuring dozens more. A curfew was imposed in the city alongside mass arrests being conducted. The ministry of home affairs blamed Wangchuk for inciting the protests.  Wangchuk denied the allegations and said that the protests were a reflection of people's frustrations with the government; Wangchuk had earlier appealed for peace when the violence had first broken out.  Two days later, Wangchuk was detained by hundreds of policemen, led by Ladakh's director general of police (DGP), under the provisions of the National Security Act (NSA).

Internet services were subsequently suspended in Leh, while the curfew and mass arrests continued.  Despite no formal detention order being given to Wangchuk's family, authorities moved him to the Jodhpur Central Jail. The Home Ministry falsely accused SECMOL of accepting dubious foreign funds, before revoking its FCRA licence. Similarly, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opened an inquiry on HIAL, and several Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were deployed against it. The Ladakh DGP accused Wangchuk of having "Pakistani links" because he had attended a Himalayan Climate Convention with his wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, in Pakistan in February 2025, organised by the United Nations and Dawn Media. Angmo was given no information about Wangchuk's health or condition, and authorities refused to allow her to speak with him.  Thereafter, on 2 October, Angmo moved to file a Habeas corpus petition before the Supreme Court, challenging Wangchuk's arrest.

 

On 24 November, the Supreme Court adjourned Angmo's plea to 8 December. The case was later adjourned further to 29 January 2026.  Wangchuk was released on 14 March 2026 after the ministry of home affairs revoked his detention under the NSA.

Personal Life Wangchuk met his first wife - Rebecca Norman (an American educator) after she came as a volunteer to SECMOL in 1992. They were married from 1996 until 2024. Wangchuk is currently married to Gitanjali J Angmo, his co-founder at Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL).

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Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk is currently recovering at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, where he was admitted following a forced removal from his Jantar Mantar protest site. He concluded his 21-day indefinite hunger strike. While his vital signs remain stable, he is receiving continuous monitoring and medical intervention to treat dehydration and metabolic abnormalities.

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Activist Sonam Wangchuk is continuing his indefinite hunger strike from Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, demanding accountability for recent education system failures and NEET-UG paper leaks. He extended his fast following police action against the "Cockroach Janta Party" (CJP) protesters during their "Sansad Chalo" (March to Parliament) on July 20, 2026. Wangchuk has stated that he will only end his fast if youth leaders are allowed to meet with Members of Parliament, or if MPs visit him in the hospital to assure him that student concerns will be addressed. His primary demands include the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, unconditional release of protesters, and compensation for students affected by exam paper leaks. Following a CJP delegation's meeting with Union Minister J.P. Nadda, the Centre has agreed to examine their demands. Meanwhile, Wangchuk's family had previously approached the Delhi High Court over his hospital stay.

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