Need for Ladakh 2025 Vision Document
Ladakh is a society in transition. Isolated from the rest of the world for much of its existence before it was thrown open to mass tourism in the mid-1970s, the region is caught in a whirlwind of change today. As new lifestyles, practices and social mores enter the Ladakhi community against a backdrop of centuries’ old indigenous traditions and culture, uncertainty and confusion reign supreme in the minds of the region’s local populace. To remedy this situation, there is a need to evolve a framework that allows Ladakhi people to seamlessly integrate the old with the new. That constitutes the first reason why the formulation of the Ladakh 2025 Vision Document was felt necessary.
The second reason for developing a Vision for Ladakh is based in the rapid decline that this region’s resources – natural, and also social & cultural – have witnessed in the recent past. While a more detailed set of strategies to help Ladakh find its place in the modern world can be worked out at length, the need of the hour is to bring an immediate stop to the shocking deterioration of our rich heritage by developing an appropriate set of preventive measures. The Ladakh 2025 Vision Document will be, it is hoped, the repository of all such measures.
