Chewang Norphel | |
|---|---|
 Norphel in 2009 | |
| Born | 1935 |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Civil engineering |
| Employer(s) | Jammu and Kashmir rural development department |
| Significant design | Water catchment; artificial glacier |
| Awards | Padma Shri(2015) |
Chewang Norphel [ needs IPA ] (born 1935) is an Indian civil engineer from Ladakh, who has built 15 artificial glaciers. [1] He has earned the title of Ice Man. [2]
Coming from a middle-class family of Leh, Norphel went to Amar Singh College in Srinagar as a student of science. He completed a diploma course in civil engineering from Lucknow in 1960. In June 1960, he joined the rural development department of Jammu and Kashmir in Ladakh as a civil engineer. He retired in 1995.
In 1996, Norphel joined the Leh Nutrition Project, a non-governmental organisation, as project manager for watershed development. [3] [4]
Norphel noticed a small stream had frozen solid under the shade of a group of poplar trees, though it flowed freely elsewhere in his yard. He realized the reason for this phenomenon: the flowing water was moving too quickly to freeze, while the sluggish trickle of water beneath the trees was slow enough to freeze. Based on this, he created artificial glaciers by diverting a river into a valley, slowing the stream by constructing checks. The artificial glaciers increase the ground-water recharge, rejuvenating the spring and providing water for irrigation. He constructed them at lower elevations, so that they melt earlier, expanding the growing season. [5]
By 2012, Norphel had built 12 artificial glaciers. Norphel's largest glacier is the one at the Phuktsey village. [6] It is 1,000 ft long, 150 ft wide and 4 ft in depth. It can supply water for the entire village of 700 people and cost Rs 90,000 to make. [7]
Documentary film-maker Aarti Shrivastava also directed a short film on his life titled White Knight , which was screened at film festivals in India and abroad.
He is a recipient of the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 2010. [8] He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, in 2015. [9]
Ladakh is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959. Ladakh is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north. It extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the north to the main Great Himalayas to the south. The eastern end, consisting of the uninhabited Aksai Chin plains, is claimed by the Indian Government as part of Ladakh, and has been under Chinese control since 1962.
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