2/7/2018 Building Village Level Eco-Entrepreneurs for Social Change: Coca-Cola India

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HOME > POINT OF VIEW > BUILDING VILLAGE LEVEL ECO-ENTREPRENEURS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

BUILDING VILLAGE LEVEL ECO-ENTREPRENEURS FOR SOCIAL

CHANGE
By: Sheeba Sen | 24/10/2017

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Water, water everywhere. But lesser of it to drink! ANOTHER SIP

The Himalayas are known as the water basin of Asia, generating up to 42 percent of
water in the region. The irony is the average hill family is unable to harness more
than 2 per cent of this water!

This statistic is a reality for mountain communities. Out of 16,000 villages in

Uttarakhand, more than half have been declared water scarce. Districts like Almora,
Pithoragarh and Chamoli are facing serious water crisis.

HAZARI LAL GUJJAR

That is fast becoming the situation in the hills where we are now noticing that तालाब की खुदाई के बाद राज थान के गांव की
villagers have to walk long distances to make sure there is water for everyone’s त ीर कैसे बदल गयी
needs. In the hills where we work, the underground water springs are getting
depleted. Many sources of water are now permanently contaminated because the SHUBHA SHEKHAR
VISION FOR A WATER POSITIVE INDIA:
microbial life that survives in the root syms of native trees is not there to absorb the COCA-COLA INDIA’S THREE MANTRAS ON
toxins. REINFORCING WATER STEWARDSHIP

Rainfall patterns have changed; the seasonality of rain has been altered. As a result, ANURAG ANAND
AN EYE OPENING EXPERIENCE: FROM BEING
agriculture suffers as communities here practice rain-fed agriculture and heavy rains VISUALLY IMPAIRED TO BECOMING
at one end or no rains at the other end play havoc with crop cycles. EMPOWERED

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2/7/2018 Building Village Level Eco-Entrepreneurs for Social Change: Coca-Cola India

There are multiple reasons for this dire water crisis in the mountains. For me,
however, one of the major causes of the water crisis in the Himalayas today are the
forests we have. In Uttarakhand, where I work, nearly 80 per cent of the forest land
has mono-cultured pine forests (Pinus Roxburghii). Pine trees are invasive by nature
and make the soil very dry and acidic, resulting in no undergrowth. As a result the
soil is very loose and erodes quickly. Pine forests have a shallow root system and
thus when it rains heavily there is copious amounts of surface run off. In contrast
native broad-leaved forests, like oak, have deep root systems and absorb rainwater
in their roots in turn repleting the underground water sources. Oak forests also have
dense undergrowth, preserve the biodiversity and enhance soil quality through
preserving moisture.

We’ve lost our native forests and if we bring them back- it will be nature’s way to
restore the balance in these beautiful mountains- ecological and social. It is also the
most sustainable way to create economic opportunities.

At Alaap, we are trying to bring back native forests, by creating them. We have so far
created 400 square metres of native forests. In the mountain, the mortality rate for
plantations of saplings can be as high as 90 per cent. We did our first pilot of native
forests in August using the Japanese scientist Dr. Miyawaki’s method. This method
has proven successful in many different climatic conditions and is completely
different from the conventional method of growing trees. This method can restrict
the mortality to 2-10 per cent.

Now we are designing two programmes so that we can help bring about the change.
The Village Leadership Development Programme seeks to build community forestry
leaders at the village level. This will help in legal awareness, raising awareness about
water conservation methods, creating native forests and other skills.

The Himalayan Youth Leadership Programme is planned as a two-year residential

fellowship for aspiring young eco-entrepreneurs working with communities to
facilitate social change through bringing back our native forests. . We are hoping to
start that from April 2018.

We think the germ of a big idea begins with a simple thought. We may already be
running behind time.

(Sheeba Sen is Founder and Executive Head at Alaap. Alaap is a social change
organisation working in forest conservation and community development in the
Central Himalayas. She is based in village Satkhol, Uttarakhand. Views expressed
on this article are personal.)

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