WATER WARS OF DRASS

A Short Documentary

Synopsis

High in the mountains of Drass, Ladakh, the people of Muradbagh village climb nearly 4,000 metres every year to bring glacier water back to their fields.

In a region where agriculture depends entirely on fragile mountain channels, broken dams can mean the loss of an entire season’s crops. Villagers repeatedly trek across dangerous terrain near Tiger Hill to rebuild temporary barriers by hand and redirect water back to their land.

Water Wars of Drass documents this annual struggle for survival in one of the harshest and most isolated landscapes in the Himalayas — where water is not a resource, but a battle.

Shot, directed, and edited independently by Aby Aneja, the film captures the resilience, labor, and realities of life in Drass through an intimate cinematic lens.

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Challenges During Production

Filming Water Wars of Drass was physically demanding due to the extreme terrain and altitude of the Tiger Hill region. Much of the documentary was shot while trekking alongside the villagers as they climbed steep mountain routes carrying tools and supplies to rebuild temporary dams and redirect glacier water.

The high elevation and constant elevation gain made filming particularly difficult. Shooting while climbing often meant losing breath between takes, especially while carrying camera gear across unstable terrain and narrow mountain paths.

Another major challenge was the intense wind conditions on the mountain. An interview with Bilal Ahmed was originally filmed near the upper sections of the route, but the heavy wind noise made the audio unusable despite multiple attempts to manage it on location. The interview was later re-shot in Muradbagh village to preserve clarity while maintaining the authenticity of his story.

These conditions became an important part of the filmmaking process itself, shaping both the visual language and the realism of the documentary.
 

Documentary Information

Location
Drass, Ladakh, India

Village Featured
Muradbagh

Altitude
Filmed at approximately 13,000 feet

Languages Available
Hindi & English Audio

Format
Dolby Vision HDR

Genre
Documentary / Human Stories / Himalayan Life

Credits

Created by Aby Aneja

Featuring:
Bilal Ahmed

Supported by Iftekhar Hussain
The people of Muradbagh village

Gear Used

Camera:
Panasonic Lumix S5

Lenses:
Sigma 45mm
Lumix 85mm

Drone:
DJI Mini 4 Pro

Director’s Note

This documentary was created as an attempt to document a reality rarely seen outside the mountains of Ladakh. Beyond the landscapes and extreme terrain lies a community whose survival depends on physical labor, resilience, and water brought down by hand from the mountains every year.

Water Wars of Drass is not only about geography or hardship, it is about the relationship between people, land, and survival in one of the most extreme inhabited regions on Earth.