Indian police on Friday detained prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk over violent protests in the Himalayan territory of occupied Ladakh that left at least five people dead, a lawyer said.

Demonstrations demanding greater political autonomy for the sparsely populated, high-altitude region bordering China and Pakistan turned deadly on Wednesday when security forces opened fire.

New Delhi blamed the unrests on “provocative speeches” by Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike demanding either full federal statehood for occupied Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment.

Mustafa Haji, a lawyer for the Apex Body Leh — which is spearheading the protests — told AFP that Wangchuk was “picked up” by the police from his village of Uley Tokpo on Friday.

“Charges against him are not known yet,” Haji said.

An engineer by training, Wangchuk, 59, is best known for pioneering water conservation projects in the Himalayas.

He received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2018 for his environmental work and contributions to reforming local schooling in occupied Ladakh.

His life and work are said to have inspired a character played by Bollywood star Aamir Khan in the hugely popular movie “Three Idiots”.

Wangchuk, who is a vocal advocate for occupied Ladakh’s environmental protection and tribal rights, was briefly detained by Delhi Police last year during a protest march.

Indian authorities on Thursday cancelled his non-profit’s foreign funding licence.

Modi’s government split occupied Ladakh off from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, imposing direct rule on both.

New Delhi has yet to fulfil its promise to include Ladakh in the “Sixth Schedule” of India’s constitution, which allows people to make their own laws and policies.

India’s army maintains a large presence in occupied Ladakh, which includes disputed border areas with China.

Troops from the two countries clashed there in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

The Philippines evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and confirmed at least three deaths Friday as a severe tropical storm battered the country, still feeling the effects of Super Typhoon Ragasa.

Civil defence officials in southern Luzon’s Bicol region said three people had been killed as walls collapsed and trees were uprooted by Severe Tropical Storm Bualoi, which is sweeping west by northwest at sustained speeds of 110 kilometres per hour.

Evacuees in one province took cover under pews as the roof of a church where they were sheltering was ripped by the storm.

“Around 4am, the wind destroyed the door, the windows and the ceiling of the church,” Jerome Martinez, a municipal engineer in southern Luzon island’s Masbate province, told AFP.

“Thats’s one of the strongest winds I’ve ever experienced,” he said, adding some children had suffered minor injuries requiring stitches.

“I think more people will have to evacuate still because many houses were destroyed and many roofs were blown away. They are now blocking the streets and roads.”

Around 400,000 people have been evacuated, Bernardo Alejandro, a civil defence official, said at a Friday press briefing.

“We are clearing many big trees and toppled electric posts because many roads are impassable,” Frandell Anthony Abellera, a rescuer in Bicol’s Masbate City, told AFP by phone.

“The rain was strong, but the wind was stronger.”

Videos shared on social media and verified by AFP showed people using boats or trudging through waist-deep water to navigate flooded streets further south in the central Philippines’ Visayas islands.

Public anger

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.

Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to the effects of human-driven climate change.

Authorities warned Thursday of a “high risk of life-threatening storm surge” of up to three meters (10 feet) with the coming storm.

Thousands also remain displaced in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which passed over the country’s far northern end and killed at least nine people earlier in the week.

The storms come as public anger seethes over a scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Taiwan rescuers look for missing

Rescue workers in Taiwan battled through thick mud on Friday, looking for 11 people still missing after Super Typhoon Ragasa this week sent a wall of water into a small town on the east coast.

The flooding’s death toll held steady at 14.

The heavy rains in Hualien county caused a so-called barrier lake in the mountains to overflow on Tuesday and release a thick sludge of water and mud on the town of Guangfu.

While the flood waters have receded, the dark grey mud continues to blanket large parts of the area, creating problems for residents and rescuers alike.

Rescue workers, sometimes wading in mud up to their waists, have been cutting holes in the roofs of buildings to check for missing people.

A man who gave his family name as Hwang said he was still looking for his elder sister’s body.

“She died in the house because it was completely filled with mud and there was no way to get her out,” he said.

Many of the deaths occurred on the first floors of houses after people, often elderly, were unable to follow government orders to move upstairs and out of the way.

Huang Ju-hsing, 88, has been trapped inside his second-floor home after the flooding blocked access to his family-run grocery store downstairs.

“There was no time to escape. We told him to hurry up and go upstairs,” said his wife Chang Hsueh-mei, who has been able to scramble over the wreckage downstairs and get outside.

“When you’re faced with an emergency, you suddenly find the courage to do anything,” said Chang, 78, after climbing through aisles of fallen objects to reach her husband.

Mountainous, sparsely populated and largely rural, Hualien is one of Taiwan’s top tourist destinations due to its wild beauty.

What to do about the barrier lake, formed by earlier typhoons and which has now shrunk in size to only 12% of what it was before the disaster, remains an unresolved issue.

Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage.

The government has ruled out using explosives to break through the bank holding up the water, fearing it could bring more landslides and worsen the situation.

The disaster has not impacted Taiwan’s crucial semiconductor industry, located on the island’s west coast.

MUMBAI: Stencilled just above the stairs, the red mark in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum is tantamount to an eviction notice for residents like Bipinkumar Padaya.

“I was born here, my father was born here, my grandfather was born here,” sighed the 58-year-old government employee.

“But we don’t have any choice, we have to vacate.”

Soon, bulldozers are expected to rumble into Asia’s largest slum, in the heart of the Indian megalopolis of Mumbai, flattening its labyrinth of filthy alleyways for a brand-new neighbourhood.

The redevelopment scheme, led by Mumbai authorities and billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani, reflects modern India — excessive, ambitious, and brutal.

If it goes ahead, many of Dharavi’s million residents and workers will be uprooted.

“They told us they will give us houses and then they will develop this area,” Padaya said.



“But now they are building their own planned areas and trying to push us out. They are cheating us.”

On the fringes of Dharavi, Padaya’s one-storey home is crammed into a tangle of alleys so narrow that sunlight barely filters through.

Engine room and underbelly

Padaya says his ancestors settled in the fishing village of Dharavi in the 19th century, fleeing hunger and floods in Gujarat, 600 kilometres (370 miles) to the north.

Waves of migrants have since swelled the district until it was absorbed into Mumbai, now home to 22 million people.

Today, the sprawl covers 240 hectares and has one of the highest population densities in the world — nearly 350,000 people per square kilometre.

Homes, workshops and small factories adjoin each other, crammed between two railway lines and a rubbish-choked river.

Over the decades, Dharavi has become both the engine room and the underbelly of India’s financial capital.



Potters, tanners and recyclers labour to fire clay, treat hides or dismantle scrap, informal industries that generate an estimated $1 billion annually.

British director Danny Boyle set his 2008 Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” in Dharavi — a portrayal that residents call a caricature.

For them, the district is unsanitary and poor — but full of life.

“We live in a slum, but we´re very happy here. And we don’t want to leave,” said Padaya.

‘City within a city´

A five-minute walk from Padaya’s home, cranes tower above corrugated sheets shielding construction.

The redevelopment of Dharavi is underway — and in his spacious city-centre office, SVR Srinivas insists the project will be exemplary.

“This is the world´s largest urban renewal project,” said the chief executive of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).

“We are building a city within a city. It is not just a slum development project.”

Brochures show new buildings, paved streets, green spaces, and shopping centres.

“Each single family will get a house,” Srinivas promised. “The idea is to resettle hundreds of thousands of people, as far as possible, in situ inside Dharavi itself.”

Businesses will also remain, he added — though under strict conditions.

Families who lived in Dharavi before 2000 will receive free housing; those who arrived between 2000 and 2011 will be able to buy at a “low” rate.

Newer arrivals will have to rent homes elsewhere.

‘A house for a house’

But there is another crucial condition: only ground-floor owners qualify.

Half of Dharavi’s people live or work in illegally built upper floors.

Manda Sunil Bhave meets all requirements and beams at the prospect of leaving her cramped two-room flat, where there is not even space to unfold a bed.

“My house is small, if any guest comes, it is embarrassing for us,” said the 50-year-old, immaculate in a blue sari.

“We have been told that we will get a house in Dharavi, with a toilet… it has been my dream for many years.”

But many of her neighbours will be forced to leave.

Ullesh Gajakosh, leading the “Save Dharavi” campaign, demands “a house for a house, a shop for a shop”.

“We want to get out of the slums… But we do not want them to push us out of Dharavi in the name of development. This is our land.”

Gajakosh counts on the support of local businesses, among them 78-year-old leatherworker Wahaj Khan.

“We employ 30 to 40 people,” he said, glancing around his workshop. “We are ready for development. But if they do not give us space in Dharavi, our business will be finished.”

‘A new Dharavi’

Abbas Zakaria Galwani, 46, shares the same concern.

He and the 4,000 other potters in Dharavi even refused to take part in the census of their properties.

“If Adani doesn´t give us as much space, or moves us somewhere from here, we will lose,” Galwani said.

More than local authorities, it is Adani — the billionaire tycoon behind the conglomerate — who has become the lightning rod for criticism.

His fortune has soared since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. So it was little surprise when his group won the Dharavi contract, pledging to invest around $5 billion.

Adani holds an 80% stake in the project, with the state government controlling the rest. He estimates the overall cost at $7-8 billion and hopes to complete it within seven years.

He has publicly vowed his “good intent” and promised to create “a new Dharavi of dignity, safety and inclusiveness”.

Sceptics suspect he’s after lucrative real estate.

Dharavi sits on prime land next to the Bandra-Kurla business district — home to luxury hotels, limousine showrooms and high-tech firms.

“This project has nothing to do with the betterment of people’s lives,” said Shweta Damle, of the Habitat and Livelihood Welfare Association.

“It has only to do with the betterment of the business of a few people.”

She believes that “at best” three-quarters of Dharavi residents will be forced to leave.

“An entire ecosystem will disappear,” she warned. “It’s going to be a disaster.”