Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Jailed climate activist Sonam Wangchuk wants to have a thermometer to conduct some “experiments” to make his prison barracks “better,” his wife and HIAL (Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh) co-founder Gitanjali Angmo said on Wednesday. “I met Sonam Wangchuk yesterday and finally gave him the book on ants, a gift from his eldest brother, along with books on climate change and its solution that he had requested,” Angmo posted on X.“He asked me to check with the jail administration and the Supreme Court of India if he can get instruments like thermometers to conduct simple experiments about eco-responsive architecture to make the jail barracks better,” she added.The book given to Wangchuk is titled “Ants: Workers of the World” by Eleanor Spicer Rice and Eduard Florin Niga. Angmo, who co-founded HIAL with her husband, had earlier told PTI that the educator-turned-environmentalist has been observing ants in his jail barrack.“If he observes some ants and their behaviour, he asks me to get books on it because the ant community has a lot of solidarity, a lot of team spirit. So, maybe he wants to study that,” she said.Magsaysay Award recipient Wangchuk, the inspiration behind Aamir Khan’s character in the 2009 blockbuster “3 Idiots,” has been in jail under the stringent National Security Act since September 26, 2025 — two days after protests in his native Ladakh demanding statehood and Sixth Schedule status left four people dead and 90 injured in the Union territory.He remains in solitary confinement in a jail in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur and has spent over 110 days behind bars.Angmo has filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court challenging his detention and seeking his immediate release. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for January 29.
