Officials use soccer to highlight climate worries in India’s ecologically fragile Ladakh region

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — The players dribble and run like in any other soccer game. But within a minute or two, some stop in huff and puff, before pushing themselves on in an unusual challenge high in India’s remote and mountainous desert region of Ladakh.

It’s the first of its kind “climate-friendly” football tournament in this ecologically fragile territory where oxygen is thin and breathing is hard. And when the wind picks up, usually in the afternoons, it brings sand and dust that cover the high-altitude stadium’s synthetic turf.

The…