Spiti Valley, where I work, is a sparsely populated area. It is spread over an area of 7,101.1 sq km and has a population of 13,000 people. That makes the population density 2 people/sq km (it’s 10,000/sq km for New Delhi). One would imagine that in a place with such a low population, finding a good space to set up a library would be a cakewalk. However, it is more a case of “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink”.
In 2018, Lonely Planet named Lahaul & Spiti as one of the world’s top ten regions to visit. This, combined with the opening of the Atal Tunnel, has led to a massive tourist inflow in the valley. In order to leverage this boom, hotels and homestays are being constructed at a never-before speed (in 2021, INR 64 crores were allocated for the development of homestays in Spiti). Especially in Kaza, our base in Spiti, it feels like every inch is under construction.
Ironically, as construction speeds up, so does our difficulty in finding a library space. As a small organization, we cannot match the sky-high rentals that commercial establishments can offer. Even if we do find an affordable place, most people back out because it means heavy footfall (primarily children).
We scrambled to find a place last year to run the pilot. And we considered it a miracle that we found a place this year, on a one-year lease. But this is just the beginning. The problem will get more complex each year. Here’s hoping that we keep running into people like Tsering Bodh and Lara Tsering who believe in the importance and magic of free libraries!