Anusha Subramanian

Deforestation in the country is not news anymore. With rapid industrialization and rising needs, we have been cutting down trees for quite some time. Now there is an immediate need to bring back the green cover, and Vodafone India, along with Grow-Trees, has taken a positive step in this direction. They have started planting 300,000 trees along the Kanha-Pench corridor. The saplings selected are of native and useful species in order to create an extra income source for the villagers. Here we profile the salient features of this initiative, which can serve as a case study for more projects of a similar nature.

On June 16, 2013, one of the worst cloud bursts struck the state of Uttarakhand. Millions were rendered homeless and many lost their lives. It’s been almost a year now and yet the process of rehabilitation and relocation of many is a question mark. Amidst this, here is an inspiring story of a young brave heart from Bankoli village in Uttarkashi district, one of the worst affected districts during the floods.

Delhi Council for Child Welfare is a Non-Governmental Organization established in 1952. The Council first started its work among children who had been displaced, lost or abandoned in the riots surrounding the Partition of India, providing them care. Today, these services reach over 3000 children daily and are provided virtually free of cost to them.

'Responsible tourism' is a lot more than just "not littering" It is about connecting with the local people and their culture, about leaving the environment in a better state than before, about improving lives of the locals, about giving more than taking, and much more. A travel company in North East India is trying to be 'responsible'. Let's find out how.

It has been three months since disaster struck Uttarakhand in June 2013, and the situation is still alarming. However, in Uttarakashi district where there has been widespread property destruction and loss of livelihood, the situation is worse, with not enough food supplies and no doctors to examine the sick. For a population of almost 3.5 lakh people in Uttarkashi, there is not one single woman doctor. The Mountaineering community is still reaching relief supplies such as medicines and food to the far-flung villages on foot as road connectivity is lost. Given this scenario, we here present two initiatives working towards rebuilding the lives of the locals.

Remember the 2004 Bollywood film in which an NRI Mohan Bhargava (played by Shah Rukh Khan) returns to India and is moved by the harsh realities faced by the people in his village to become an agent of change? The name of that film was Swades, and here is an organization called Swades Foundation that shares a similar mission - to bring about change in rural India. To know how they are doing this, read more.

TBI writer Anusha Subramanian is currently in Uttarakhand, participating in the relief operations and assisting the locals in rebuilding their lives. She reports from the scene of the devastating floods on the current situation in the affected areas, on the aid provided by the administration, and the stupendous work being carried out by trekkers, mountaineers, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), army personnel and NGOs.

Literacy rate in India might be cited at around 74% (in 2011), but the ground reality is that even among the so-called educated youth, 'employability' remains a key challenge. The main reasons behind this are a lack of communications and other finer skills. This is an important gap that needs to be bridged, and we bring to you an organization in Bangalore committed to doing this from the past several years, with great success.

Ecologically sustainable wildlife tourism is best handled by local communities and the homestays run by Mountain Shepherds in the villages of Lata and Tolma in the Dhauli Ganga valley in Garhwal illustrate just that. Abutting the wild and pristine Nanda Devi National Park, Mountain Shepherds is an offshoot of the Nanda Devi Campaign for cultural survival and livelihoods spearheaded by the Marcha Bhotia community of this valley. You stay in small but comfortable traditional village homes, and enjoy some delicious local cuisine prepared by your hosts. The organisation even arranges for treks in the deodar and birch forests of the national park with local guides who know the local flora and fauna like the back of their hands. Learn more about this interesting model of community-backed tourism.