A Road through the Stars - Labour, Development and Beauty on India's Himalayas (43 images)

The Leh-Manali Highway is the main road connection between the remote mountainous region of Ladhak, with capital in Leh (3300m), and Manali, HP, a famous hill station 600 km north of New Delhi.

Open only four months a year, it is the second-highest motorable road in the world crossing passes up to 5300 meters. It was constructed by the Indian Army in order to develop the surrounding areas as well as monitoring the nearby borders with Kashmir and China.

Here over...
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The Leh-Manali Highway is the main road connection between the remote mountainous region of Ladhak, with capital in Leh (3300m), and Manali, HP, a famous hill station 600 km north of New Delhi.

Open only four months a year, it is the second-highest motorable road in the world crossing passes up to 5300 meters. It was constructed by the Indian Army in order to develop the surrounding areas as well as monitoring the nearby borders with Kashmir and China.

Here over 6000 itinerant workers mostly from Jharkhand and Bihar, two impoverished states in India's East, are employed to maintain and expand the road which every year grows stronger, faster and more reliable.

They live in tents and work in a surreal environment, where the oxygen is little and hard labour can be tough.

Due to its beauty and increased accessibility, the road to Leh and Ladhak has recently become a must-see destination for local and international tourists leaving the scorching Indian plains.

Its popularity is also increasingly a danger to the notorious Ladhaki way of sustainable living.

In the past couple of years large new sections of Leh have been built to accommodate the growing flux of migrant and various NGOs operate in Leh to protect this fragile Himalayan ecosystem and its inhabitants.

* Information, details, local NGO contacts and more are available. Please contact Alex Masi.
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