VK Saxena’s Grand Scheme to Refill Tso Kar Lake with Glacier Melt

When VK Saxena, the lieutenant governor of Ladakh, stood on the cracked, salt‑streaked shore of Tso Kar on August 10, the scene was almost cinematic – a once‑vast lake reduced to a puddle, its shoreline littered with dead grass and a noticeable hush where migratory birds used to chatter.

That encounter sparked a bold plan: divert the untapped meltwater of the nearby Rupsho Kharnak glacier and pour roughly 320 million litres – about 132 cubic feet per second – into the lake every day. In plain terms, it’s the kind of water‑management effort you’d expect in a textbook, but here it’s happening at 15,000 feet above sea level, amid a landscape that many would label unforgiving.

The idea isn’t entirely new for Saxena. Earlier this year, his team successfully redirected 90 million litres of water from the Stok Glacier to irrigate fields in the Igoo‑Phey and Chuchot villages. Buoyed by that win, the government’s Public Health Engineering (PHE) department drafted a fresh blueprint for Tso Kar, only to see Saxena scrap the proposed 11‑km concrete channel in favour of a greener, low‑tech solution.

Instead of a sprawling concrete conduit, the plan leans on three natural depressions that sit along the glacier’s downhill flow. The first basin spreads over 270 acres, the second covers 24 acres, and the third spans just 10 acres. Each will be equipped with a modest RCC (reinforced cement concrete) pipe at its outlet, acting like a tiny dam to raise water levels and smooth the discharge downstream.

From the third depression, a short 400‑metre gravity‑fed stretch will usher the water into Tso Kar. No fresh concrete channel is required for this final leg; a simple earthen trench will do the trick, keeping both costs and ecological disturbance to a minimum.

Work kicked off in early September, racing against the oncoming winter freeze. By September 9, about 20 cusecs of meltwater had already been redirected into the first depression, filling roughly one‑fifth of its area within four days. This early success has set a hopeful tone for the rest of the diversion.

Beyond rescuing the lake, the three interim basins will act as natural settling ponds, allowing sediments to drop out and delivering clearer water to Tso Kar. Collectively, they will hold an estimated 1.23 billion litres of water, creating fresh‑water wetlands that could become new habitats for migratory birds and, perhaps, unexpected tourist spots visible from the bustling Leh‑Manali highway.

The stakes are high. Over the past decade, Tso Kar has lost nearly 70 percent of its surface area – shrinking from about 11,000 acres to just 3,200 acres. This contraction has disrupted the lake’s role as a crucial stop‑over for species like the black‑necked crane, and it has stripped surrounding villages of grazing land for their prized Pashmina goats. Herds now have to trek 50‑75 kilometres to find suitable pastures, a hardship that the revival hopes to alleviate.

If the water diversion proceeds as envisioned, the lake could bounce back to its former glory within a single year, restoring both the ecological balance and the livelihoods of local herders. It would also stand as India’s first large‑scale, high‑altitude lake‑revival project, a kind of ‘vital blueprint’ for other disappearing water bodies in the region.

For now, the project is still in its infancy, but the early signs – the filling depressions, the murmurs of water returning to a thirsty basin, and the cautious optimism of the villagers – suggest that Saxena’s gamble might just pay off.