Kumik villagers were the first climate migrants in Zanskar

Ten years ago, the people of Kumik—the oldest village in Zanskar—were forced to confront a devastating truth. The glacier that had sustained them for generations was shrinking to a few fragile ribbons of ice. Without it, there would be no water. And without water, no village.

Families made wrenching choices. Some resettled closer to the Zanskar River, starting over from nothing. Others moved farther afield, leaving behind centuries-old homes. A handful—mostly elders—remained, unwilling to abandon the place where their ancestors had lived and worked, even as the springs slowed to a trickle.

Meme Ishay Palden, the village elder, voiced what many feared: “There is a saying that goes, ‘Kumik was established first and it will be the one to go extinct first.’ If there is no water, it is like a ruin. Even if you have land, you have no use. Water is the most essential resource.”

Kumik’s crisis is more than the loss of buildings or fields. It is the fracturing of a community, the erasure of traditions, the fading of a way of life that has existed for centuries. With support, there is still time to protect what remains—and to give Kumik a future.