Once released, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk will not protest: wife

Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk will not pursue the path of agitation after he is released from detention under the National Security Act (NSA) but will continue to be part of the movement to demand constitutional safeguards for Ladakh through discussion and dialogue, said Gitanjali J. Angmo, his wife and the co-founder of Himalayan Institute of Alternative Learning (HIAL).

“Who wants to sit on a fast for 15-30 days every time? September 24 [2025] was a black day. Instead of agitation and protests, once he is released, we will look for a solution through dialogue and collaboration. We will make Ladakh a role model,” Ms. Angmo told The Hindu in an interview on Monday.

She said her husband did not have “political ambitions” and he agreed to become a member of the high-powered committee led by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in June 2025 on the insistence of the leaders from Ladakh.

“He agreed to become a member of the HPC only after the May 2025 talks with the MHA [Ministry of Home Affairs] failed, it was organic. If he had political ambitions, over the past 10 years all political parties have approached him [to contest] whenever there is a Lok Sabha election. He never showed any interest; he thinks his primary role is an educator and an environmentalist,” Ms. Angmo said.

The Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), representing the two main districts in Ladakh, which have been spearheading the movement for constitutional safeguards in the Union Territory are part of the HPC.

She said be it the Ladakhi groups or the Government of India, everyone had the interest of people and the region on their mind and dialogue and collaboration was the only way forward.

Moves court

Ms. Angmo had challenged Mr. Wangchuk’s detention under the NSA in the Supreme Court.

The court will hear the case next on March 10.

“The NSA order issued by the authorities was a cut-copy-paste job. The district magistrate did not apply his mind,” she said.

She said the videos submitted by the government to justify the NSA order saying that Mr. Wangchuk was trying to instigate Arab Spring type protests in Ladakh was incorrect and the videos were presented out of context.

“There is nothing violent or provocative in the videos,” she added.

“For the past five months, I have not been home [in Leh]. I have to travel two days to meet him for an hour,” she said.

On September 24, 2025, Mr. Wangchuk and 15 others were arrested on the 15th day of their 35-day hunger strike when violence erupted in Leh city. At least four persons, including a Kargil war veteran, were killed in police firing and 160 others were injured. This was his fifth hunger strike in past five years to draw the government’s attention to the demands of constitutional safeguards for the region.

After Article 370 of the Constitution was read down by Parliament in 2019, Ladakh civil society groups have been protesting for constitutional safeguards such as Statehood and inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.