A tourism initiative in India’s first dark sky reserve has brought new hope to a community as employment means they can stay close to their roots and culture
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he snow-flecked peaks surrounding the village of Hanle are bathed in golden light as the sun sets. In the valley, 28-year-old Tsering Dolkar secures a telescope to its tripod and focuses the lens beneath a clear sky.
Zipped into warm jackets the visitors gather around Dolkar, gazing upwards as the sky darkens into a breathtaking tapestry of stars. She points toward a bright star in the western sky and announces: “That is Venus.” Someone says excitedly: “There’s the Milky Way!”
At 4,500 metres above sea level, remote Hanle in Ladakh offers some of the clearest night skies on Earth and became India’s first dark sky reserve in 2022. Dolkar is among 25 villagers – 18 of them women – trained as astronomy ambassadors to boost Hanle’s tourism and offer livelihoods to villagers. The programme is also aimed at safeguarding the conditions essential for the nearby Indian Astronomical Observatory by raising awareness of light pollution.
