Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer, innovator and education reformist has made this portable solar heated tent for the first time in the world and gifted the same to the Indian army.
This tent can accommodate 10 jawans at a time. Himalayan Institute of Alternative Learning (HIAL), Ladakh was working on a special tent that can be heated through solar energy and it is a passive solar heated tent. It took a month to develop. Explaining further in his video, Wangchuk showed the tent that is divided into two parts – a greenhouse can also be called a solar lounge and a sleeping chamber. This tent has to be kept facing south, so that the solar lounge absorbs heat from the sun. The solar lounge can be used by the soldiers during the daytime as it gets heated in the sun but will not remain warm at night. The both parts are divided by a portable wall called the heat bank made of polycarbonate which does not allow the heat to escape. The walls store the heat during the day time and keep the sleeping chamber warm at night. The temperature inside the sleeping chamber can be around 10-15 degrees while the temperature outside the tent remains around minus 20 degree Celsius and below. The portable tent can be dismantled in 30-40 parts and each part does not weigh more than 30kgs due to which it can be easily carried to anyplace like Black Top, Rezang La and Siachin. The tent is covered with a windcheater to guard from the cold winds blowing outside.
Wangchuk said that this tent was developed in coordination with the Indian army understanding the needs of the soldiers and the army too cooperated a lot. In regard to cost, he said it costs around Rs 5 lakh. In comparison with other alternatives, there is an iron container which has no provision of heating, area is less than half of this solar heated tent and costs around Rs 9-10 lakh and another alternative is cloth tent that could be cheaper but remain very cold. Had this tent been developed in a government lab as a research project then it would have cost around Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Here it was developed at a very cheap cost and within a month. “We have not taken the cost for developing this tent from the government, but developed it from my own pocket and gifted it to the Indian army,” he added.
He said that to keep the chamber warm, soldiers use burn lakhs of litres of kerosene to keep themselves and their tent warm, which was not only a costly affair, but also polluted the environment. Along with many soldiers suffered burn injuries due to the fire and many had died due to freezing weather. Wangchuk said that this tent would save the environment as Indian army burns down 1 lakh kilolitres of kerosene every year that generates around 3 lakh tonne carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If Indian army uses such tents then huge quantities of fuel can be saved.
Defence secretary Ajay Kumar thanking Wangchuk said that the innovation was very timely, absolutely relevant and perfect as usual.
It is to be mentioned that a Bollywood movie ‘Three Idiots’ was made based on Wangchuk and actor Aamir Khan played the role of Wangchuk as ‘Phunsukh Wangdu’.
