<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stamps are to create awareness about depleting glaciers and affect on the ecology around the Himalayas.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Over 12 villages in Ladakh have built ice Stupas this year in various villages.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">With the technical and material support by the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh ( HIAL) , village youths have enthusiasticly participated in building the ice Stupas. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">To keep motivated, this yesr HIAL has organized a competition among the villages on ice Stupas .</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ramon Magsaysay and Rolex award winner Sonam Wangchuk said simple living in cities only would help and allow the ecology of mountains to just survive. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Global warming, ecological imbalance have caused irreparable damage oñ Himalayas, thus this awareness through the stamp release has been taken up, he said.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ice Stupas is not any celebration but survival technique we in SECMOL have developed over a period, Wangchuk said.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Saving Winter water, that flows waste, in a cone shaped stupa which is not melted easily is the main idea behind it , he explains.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This stupa melts slowly  and serves the purpose of drinking and irrigation, he said. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In each ice Stupa atleast 30-50 lakh ltrs of water is saved. This is apart from the naturally saved water in the slopes of mountains, Sonam Wangchuk said.</div>