Work at the Central Asian Museum Leh (CAML) is progressing very rapidly this year. We have reorganized the workforce at the end of 2010, and delegated more responsibility to the local team of LOTI.
In little over one month, the final floor has been built and the lower two floors have been paved with slate stone; the library has been completed (flooring, railing and drainage of the terrace, more furniture added, sanding and oiling of wooden floor, completion of compost toilet system); one residential old Leh house, damaged by the 2010 floods, has been repaired; restoration of one building in Stok village is in progress, and timber elements are being prepared for the next Leh house waiting to be restored.
THF/LOTI are also lobbying to prevent building of a new thoroughfare road planned to go through the old town, with broad support of many NGOs, institutions and individuals in Leh. In cooperation with Berlin University of Technology and students from CEPT university in Ahmedabad, alternative proposals have been developed.
Other volunteers and interns have been cataloguing the museum artefacts, and are surveying historic buildings whose owners have applied for help with restoration.
A workshop in cooperation with architecture and design students from the University of Konstanz in mid-June aims to help conserve and improve a historic residential quarter in old Leh.
THF also continues to advise a number of NGOs and institutions, including SEED (India) in the construction of shelter rooms for victims of last year's cloudburst.