In the name of development, mountains are being destroyed. This has resulted in the dying of springs and other natural bodies
A disturbing trend has emerged in the hills of Uttarakhand where cultivation of fruits like oranges and apples is making way for mangoes and traditional variety of wheat is being replaced with an early variety of wheat that takes less time to ripe.
Trees like Buransh and Kafal, known for their water-retaining qualities are being replaced with pine trees, leading to an increase in incidents of forest fires — the result of climate change that has led to rise in temperature and decline in rainfall.
There are at least half a dozen mango trees in village Baunsari in Pauri district. These trees are over 10-15 years old. One fine morning of 2009 villagers saw the trees flowering and from the next year they started bearing fruits. Villagers vouch that this phenomena is all thanks to the rising temperatures. In contrast, orange and apple orchards are now nowhere to be seen. Just a decade ago regions like Pauri and Almora were famous for apple production.
The climate change has severely hit the livelihood pattern of the hill people. A study carried out under CSE Media Fellowship shows that a decline in availability of water in ‘gadderas' (local water bodies) severely affected irrigation facilities, leading to reduction in crop production. Agriculture is the mainstay of hill economy. But with the rain gods scowling, migration of the youth has started to nearby cities in search of a livelihood.
A retired professor of the College of Architect, Dl Sah, settled in Pithoragarh, said: “Because of climate change there is change in forest bio-diversity. Earlier forests used to have broad leaf plants that had good water retention capacity. These are now been replaced with pine, which has resulted in increase in forest fires. The rise in temperature has even affected crop production. The farm lands are now less fertile. Termite, which was until a decade back unknown in the hills has started affecting crops. Houses are being damages because of termite mainly because pine wood is used in construction of these houses and termites are partial to pine wood. The wild vegetables/medicinal herbs like taidu, geethi, chana, ghanya, lingda, jir, haldi have become extinct with the reduction in forests.”
Bharat Patwal who has carried out a study — A Himalayan Village under Climatic Change — said that Himalayan mountain ranges are more fragile, complex and vulnerable to global climatic changes. The economy of the Himalayan region is fully dependent on natural resources. Changes in natural resource base due to global warming will affect livelihood of local communities. Rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers or decrease in snow cover has affected the overall availability of water for drinking, agriculture.
Today, women walk 10-12 km to fetch water for their daily needs. The problem is spread across the hills. The number of gadderas have halved in the last one-and-a half-decade creating problems for villagers and adversely affecting the village economy. The farm lands have turned barren due to paucity of water for irrigation; agriculture is now rain-fed. The farm production has come down.
But there's a silver lining to this gloomy scenario. People through their innovative methods have tried to save ground water and increase water retention capability of soil. The example is best witnessed in Bajeen village in Almora district where villagers have set up micro-reservoirs over the springs. This helped rainwater to infiltrate soil layers easily and thus, recharge the micro-reservoirs appropriately. They also experimented by adding clay to the micro-reservoirs thus strengthening its capacity to retain more water for longer time.
The man behind this transformation Gopal Singh Dev said plantations of woody tree species around this reservoirs help in percolation of precipitation to deep soil layers.
“The region is known for its seasonal as well as off season vegetable production. In order to meet their water requirement the people have also started collecting rainwater through roof water harvesting tank. The micro-reservoirs and roof water harvesting has become the villagers' lifeline. Encouraged by the success of the experiment, people of the village have also developed a common mango orchard in village common land”, he wrote in his study.