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About me
Engineer by education, Waste warrior by profession, explorer by heart and an aspiring environmentalist, I spent my childhood in the foothills of Himalayas at the banks of Ganga in Haridwar. My heart beats for the wellbeing of our mountains.
I am Pranav. I work with a social enterprise called Saahas Zero Waste in the field of Waste management in Bangalore.
I have previously worked in Infosys Technologies. My inclination towards environment and climate change led me to my current job.
This July, I’m joining a 20 person GHE team to bring solar energy to Sking, a small village in Zanskar valley of Ladakh. It comes under Kargil district. The village is located approximately 550 Kms from Leh at a height of 13500 ft. There is no school in the village and students normally are in the hostel in a school in a nearby town.
The village is currently not connected to any form of road and also has no grid based electricity.We would trek for 2-3 days to reach the village from the last motorable point.
Once there, we'll install a solar microgrid, power distribution and household lighting throughout the village. The end microgrid will be operated and maintained by people of skiing.
Mission
While, electricity is even less than a necessity for urbanites who are exhausting our resources at the most alarming rate in the human history, these people from remote villages of Ladakh are living one of the most sustainable life and yet are devoid of this basic necessity of electricity.
In 2014, the Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) set out to connect the rural populations of Ladakh to sustainable power systems: solar micro-grids. Since its inception in 2013, Global Himalayan Expedition has conducted more than 25 Expeditions, electrified over 60 villages and impacted over 20000 lives in Himalayas.
Prior, these remote populations were unconnected from electricity and had to rely on dirty sources of fuel such as kerosene and wood for all of their household energy consumption. Now, these households have solar power that can support basic levels of household consumption - they can replace their kerosene lamps with lightbulbs. This simple expansion of utilities has substantial effects on household health and wellbeing. Studies show electrification has a positive impact on education and income in rural communities, particularly for women, by allowing children to spend less time collecting fuel and more time studying.
It is a huge display of courage and example for rest of us that if clean energy can reach to such remote places, it becomes a moral responsibility towards our mother earth that we adopt these cleaner sources of energy.
Video: A peek into work done by GHE
Where I fit in
I stand for what I stand on. I stand for clean energy, zero emissions, zero waste communities. I try my bit by segregating waste, avoiding one time use plastic bags and cups, tissues. I eventually want to reduce my carbon footprint to zero. Help me to set foot on this incredible journey of making our communities more sustainable and help me to realise my long term vision of conserving the delicate ecology of our Himalayas which plays huge role in climate change.
Why am I reaching out to you?
Making the remotest of the village at the height of 13k ft accessible to electricity comes at a cost. And that cost is $4000 (Roughly 240000) for equipment (solar micro-grid), installations, travel and sustainance. As responsible citizens, some can dedicate time and some can dedicate money. Your contributions are going to go long way in making the lives of the villagers easier and setting an example.
Engineer by education, Waste warrior by profession, explorer by heart and an aspiring environmentalist, I spent my childhood in the foothills of Himalayas at the banks of Ganga in Haridwar. My heart beats for the wellbeing of our mountains.
I am Pranav. I work with a social enterprise called Saahas Zero Waste in the field of Waste management in Bangalore.
I have previously worked in Infosys Technologies. My inclination towards environment and climate change led me to my current job.
This July, I’m joining a 20 person GHE team to bring solar energy to Sking, a small village in Zanskar valley of Ladakh. It comes under Kargil district. The village is located approximately 550 Kms from Leh at a height of 13500 ft. There is no school in the village and students normally are in the hostel in a school in a nearby town.
The village is currently not connected to any form of road and also has no grid based electricity.We would trek for 2-3 days to reach the village from the last motorable point.
Once there, we'll install a solar microgrid, power distribution and household lighting throughout the village. The end microgrid will be operated and maintained by people of skiing.
Mission
While, electricity is even less than a necessity for urbanites who are exhausting our resources at the most alarming rate in the human history, these people from remote villages of Ladakh are living one of the most sustainable life and yet are devoid of this basic necessity of electricity.
In 2014, the Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) set out to connect the rural populations of Ladakh to sustainable power systems: solar micro-grids. Since its inception in 2013, Global Himalayan Expedition has conducted more than 25 Expeditions, electrified over 60 villages and impacted over 20000 lives in Himalayas.
Prior, these remote populations were unconnected from electricity and had to rely on dirty sources of fuel such as kerosene and wood for all of their household energy consumption. Now, these households have solar power that can support basic levels of household consumption - they can replace their kerosene lamps with lightbulbs. This simple expansion of utilities has substantial effects on household health and wellbeing. Studies show electrification has a positive impact on education and income in rural communities, particularly for women, by allowing children to spend less time collecting fuel and more time studying.
It is a huge display of courage and example for rest of us that if clean energy can reach to such remote places, it becomes a moral responsibility towards our mother earth that we adopt these cleaner sources of energy.
Video: A peek into work done by GHE
Where I fit in
I stand for what I stand on. I stand for clean energy, zero emissions, zero waste communities. I try my bit by segregating waste, avoiding one time use plastic bags and cups, tissues. I eventually want to reduce my carbon footprint to zero. Help me to set foot on this incredible journey of making our communities more sustainable and help me to realise my long term vision of conserving the delicate ecology of our Himalayas which plays huge role in climate change.
Why am I reaching out to you?
Making the remotest of the village at the height of 13k ft accessible to electricity comes at a cost. And that cost is $4000 (Roughly 240000) for equipment (solar micro-grid), installations, travel and sustainance. As responsible citizens, some can dedicate time and some can dedicate money. Your contributions are going to go long way in making the lives of the villagers easier and setting an example.
