This project was carried out with field assistance from the Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG). Villages of this great arid mountain desert of India trace their current irrigation practices to royal edicts found in ancient Buddhist gompas further translated under the Land Settlement Records in the early part of the 20th century. The project documented four traditional irrigation systems covering seven villages in Ladakh as they exist today, and found them to be in conformity with traditional rules as laid out in the Land Settlement Records. The larger purpose of this documentation was to undertake and facilitate the preservation of these documents.

• A report on the study undertaken in September 2001 is available with WII.
• A follow-up to this initial study is currently underway. This exercise hopes to plug in certain gaps in the former and provide an additional dimension to the entire study by investigating the relevance and efficacy of the traditional irrigation system in the town of Leh.