Uttarakhand

Though they have so much going for them; good fresh unpolluted air, chemical-free produce year long, and a higher quality of life, they seemed to take great pride in telling people that their daughter would be marrying a city dweller.

Acting as a bridge between the experience-hungry city dwellers and the rural wisdom holder villagers, the festival played host to about 100 individuals, some of which included people from different parts of the world.

Almost all women in the village have been forced to deliver their babies at home, in the fields or the forest, without any medical assistance.

Shaila Brijnath and Neelu Khanna have infused hope and dreams of a future in 1,800 slum children in Dehradun.

People from remote places in the Himalayas say he is doing “God’s work”, although the commercial world we live in would term him a failure

Tanya Kotnala, an illustrator and Tanya Singh, a nutritionist joined hands to form Bhuli (which means ‘Little Sister’ in the native dialect of Garhwali), last year with the intention of reviving the local art and culture of the state.

An initiative is helping you forget the city life and head to the local villages and experience the rustic life there.

Wings, an NGO in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, has been involved in several initiatives in this region but was alarmed as they learnt of the glorious past and the shrinking presence of one such lifeblood of its region - the Rai Gaarh river.

Bhuli, which means ‘Little Sister’ in the native dialect of Garhwali, is an enterprise that was founded by a fashion designer Tanya Kotnala and a nutritionist Tanya Singh in 2016.

Back in 1973, it was a patch of barren land strewn with rocks. Today, it is a thriving 1.5 hectare agro-forest, thanks to an incredible effort by ex-soldier Jagat ‘Jungli’ Singh Chaudhary.