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Who Is Sonam Wangchuk? The Man Who Built Ice Glaciers, Fixed Schools and Is Now on Hunger Strike for India's Students

Sonam Wangchuk is a Ladakhi engineer, educator and climate activist who spent three decades transforming failing schools, inventing artificial glaciers and building solar powered campuses in the Himalayas. He is now on an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi, entering his 18th day as of July 16, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET exam paper leak scandal that affected millions of students across India.

By Open Vaartha Desk ·

TL;DR

Sonam Wangchuk, the Ladakhi innovator who inspired the film 3 Idiots, is on an indefinite hunger strike demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign over the NEET paper leak

Key points

<p>Sonam Wangchuk was born on September 1, 1966 in Alchi village in the Leh district of Ladakh. There were no schools in his village when he was growing up. His mother was his first teacher, instructing him at home in his native language until he was around nine years old. When he finally entered formal schooling he had to learn everything in a new language in an unfamiliar system designed for students who had none of his challenges. That difficult early experience of being failed by a system not built for him would become the driving force of his entire life's work. His father was a politician who later served in the Jammu and Kashmir government. Despite coming from a family with some public standing, Wangchuk had differences with his father over his choice of engineering discipline and ended up financing his own education by teaching children while still a student himself. It was during that time that he saw firsthand how deeply broken the education system was for children in the region.</p><p> </p><p>He went on to complete a mechanical engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar and later earned the opportunity to study at the prestigious Ecole Centrale Paris in France. Exposure to world class institutions abroad only deepened his resolve to fix things at home. In 1988, fresh out of college, he cofounded the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, known as SECMOL, along with a small group of peers who had themselves been let down by a school system designed without them in mind. The organisation set out to do something radical: instead of teaching Ladakhi children in languages they barely understood about subjects disconnected from their lives, it would connect learning to the real world around them. At the time, as many as 95 percent of students in Ladakh were failing their board exams. Over the following two decades that number fell to around 25 percent. The change was not the result of better test preparation. It was the result of better education.</p><p></p><p>The most powerful expression of Wangchuk's educational philosophy is the SECMOL Alternative School near Phyang, about 12 kilometres from Leh. The school does not admit students based on grades. It admits students who have failed their board exams. These young people arrive having been written off by the system and leave with practical skills, renewed confidence and a genuine education. The campus itself is a lesson. It runs entirely on solar energy with no fossil fuels used for cooking, lighting or heating. The buildings are made from mud and local earth and maintain a comfortable warmth even when outside temperatures plunge well below freezing. Students grow their own food, manage the school's electricity and water, cook their own meals and elect their own student government. The school won the International Terra Award for the best earthen building at the World Congress on Earthen Architecture in Lyon in 2016. Wangchuk also launched Operation New Hope in 1994, a joint effort between the government, civil society and village communities to reform government schools across Ladakh through teacher training, local curriculum writing and community ownership of schools.</p><p></p><p>Not content with fixing education alone, Wangchuk turned his engineering mind toward climate change and water scarcity. In 2013 he invented the Ice Stupa, a method of creating artificial glaciers shaped like giant cones or Buddhist stupas. In Ladakh, natural glaciers sit high in the mountains and melt too late in the year to help farmers who need water during early spring planting. Wangchuk's insight was simple and brilliant. During winter, water flows freely from streams and goes to waste. By piping that water to lower altitudes and spraying it into the freezing air, it forms a tall cone of ice. Because of the cone's shape, less surface area is exposed to the sun, allowing the ice to melt slowly and steadily through the spring exactly when farmers need it most. The first prototype in 2014 stored 150,000 litres of water. The technology has since spread to other regions of India and inspired similar experiments in Switzerland and Nepal. In 2016 Wangchuk received the Rolex Award for Enterprise for the Ice Stupa project and in 2018 he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely regarded as Asia's Nobel Prize, for his community driven educational reform. He also founded the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh in 2015 to provide hands on higher education rooted in sustainability and local knowledge. Millions of Indians know him as the real life inspiration behind Phunsukh Wangdu, the unconventional genius played by Aamir Khan in the beloved film 3 Idiots.</p><p></p><p>Now this man who has spent his life building things and fixing systems is using the only tool he has left. Since June 28, 2026, Sonam Wangchuk has been on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in central New Delhi. He is fasting in solidarity with Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, a movement led by young Indians demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over widespread paper leaks in the NEET UG 2026 examination that affected millions of students nationwide. As of July 16, the strike has entered its 18th day. Wangchuk has lost more than 8.4 kg and his blood pressure has dropped to 109 over 70. The Delhi High Court has called for urgent hearings on a petition seeking immediate medical intervention to protect his life. </p><p></p><img src="https://cf-images.assettype.com/nationalherald%2F2026-07-16%2Fmt4gz14p%2FScreenshot16-7-202693729x.com.jpeg?rect=0%2C0%2C350%2C197&amp;auto=format%2Ccompress&amp;fmt=webp&amp;w=768&amp;dpr=1.5" alt="Sonam Wangchuk remains on an indefinite hunger strike"><p></p><p>A fellow protester already fainted and was hospitalised. Opposition leaders including former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav have visited Wangchuk and urged him to end the fast. The government has not responded. The Cockroach Janta Party has called for a mass solidarity hunger strike on July 16 and a march to Parliament on July 20 when the Monsoon Session begins. Wangchuk has said he will not stop until the government agrees to talk. The man who once asked why winter water should go to waste is now asking a harder question: why should the futures of millions of students go to waste too.</p>