November 10, 2025
JAMMU – The priceless petroglyphs scattered across Ladakh are under severe threat from extensive road construction and weathering, particularly around villages situated along the Indus River.
Rock art dating back to as early as 2000 BC is at risk of irreversible damage due to ongoing road construction, widening and infrastructure development by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and other agencies undertaking strategic projects in the region.
The danger to these ancient carvings is not limited to Ladakh alone. In the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Jammu and Kashmir—currently under Pakistan’s illegal occupation—a similar heritage crisis looms large. The Pakistan government has reportedly signed a Rs. 442 billion contract with a Chinese company to build a hydroelectric dam that would submerge around 50 villages, each home to invaluable collections of prehistoric rock art.
Experts warn that if urgent protection measures are not taken, the region could lose one of the world’s oldest and most remarkable archives of human expression.
The Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, the Dalai Lama, has also appealed for preserving the rich heritage of the rock art and inscriptions. His appeal came during his stay in Ladakh, where he came to know about the damage being caused to the inscriptions of the Kushan period and Bronze Age that were also decaying.
A team led by the Director of Tourism, Ladakh, Tsering Paldan, on Saturday visited the ancient petroglyph sites along the Nimoo-Chilling road in the Leh district and documented several rock carvings.
The pictures released after the team’s visit indicate road construction activity in the region that was causing damage to the historical rock carvings.
The team, consisting also of Assistant Director, Tourism, Leh, Ms Padma Angmo and Associate Professor, Zoology, EJM College, Leh, Tashi Ldawa, a noted expert on petroglyphs, visited several ancient petroglyph sites along the Nimoo–Chilling road in Leh district.
The team documented a series of remarkable rock carvings depicting ibex, yak, hunting scenes, and human figures, which are believed to date back to around 2,000 BC. These petroglyphs serve as an invaluable testament to Ladakh’s rich prehistoric cultural heritage, offering profound insights into the life, environment, and beliefs of early human settlements in the region.
The team expressed concern over the growing vulnerability of these ancient carvings to natural weathering and potential human interference. It was collectively felt that urgent conservation measures are required to safeguard and preserve these priceless heritage assets for future generations.
Climate change, which was frequently triggering flash floods in the cold desert region, was another cause of damage to these rocks.
The BRO deployed earthmovers and other equipment to build the Nimmu-Padum-Darcha road, which is considered the third axis to reach Ladakh.
The first scientific documentation of the rock art of Ladakh was reportedly done by a Moravian missionary scholar, August Hermann Francke (1870–1930), who was based in Leh and Khalatse between 1896 and 1914.
The then chairman of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Tashi Gyalson, in 2022, constituted a committee to prevent further damage to the rock carvings when complaints came to him that labourers of BRO had damaged several petroglyphs during the construction of the Khaltsi-Guru dho road.
Gyalson held a meeting with the Chief Engineers of Project Himank and Project Vijayak of BRO to discuss the issues in detail.