Back to the Basics

In 1960 a single jeep drove into Hunza Valley. Today up to a million tourist vehicles enter every year, alongside 25,000 local vehicles and thousands of trade trucks on the Karakoram Highway. The air, the noise, the rivers and the glaciers all carry the cost.

The youth of Ahmedabad, historically called Thanidas, answered with a return rather than a new technology: cycling routes in place of cars, homestays in place of hotels, organic food grown in the village, and a goal of a dustbin-free community. It is entirely community-driven, and the village already runs on its own community-owned micro-hydropower.

Echoes of a Valley is the project's report, told by four young narrators from the village: Sara Manzoor, Atif Naeem, Hamid Karim and Nauman Ali.