Ladakh is the coldest region in India, and amongst the coldest inhabited regions in the world. It is high up in the Himalayas where the impact of climate change are magnified and as a cold desert, it gets very little precipitation. These three factors, together - extreme cold, climate change, and water shortages - pose big challenges in providing public services like sanitation, water supply , comfortable housing and transportation. Eleven Indian states are mountainous with about 60 million residents and face similar problems