Inside the Uttarakhand Community Where Bird Watching Has Turned Into a Sustainable Livelihood

In Rathuadhab village of Uttarakhand’s Corbett Tiger Reserve, the sky isn’t blue. It’s multicoloured. The array of birds that flock to the place — rock eagle-owl, common kingfisher, striped tiger butterfly, Asian barred owlet, Himalayan rubythroat, black-chinned yuhina, blue-winged minla, silver-eared mesia, Western hooded pitta, rosy minivet — lends the sky its colours. 

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The locals in the Kalagarh Tiger Reserve (northern part of Jim Corbett National Park) have turned into stewards of their ecosystem. 

The initiative, a partnership between the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board and Dehradun-based NGO Titli Trust, is enabling the community to embrace eco-tourism by turning into bird guides, opening their homes as homestays, and in turn providing an alternate livelihood for the villagers. 

And this beautiful story is told through the lens of Dhananjay Rongkali and Neeraj Bisht, both GreenHub Fellows; the GreenHub initiative is empowering locals to document their stories of conservation. 

As Sanjay Sondhi, the founder trustee of Titli Trust, underscores, the project aimed to train the youth in documenting their avian treasure trove. 

He shares, “We started a nature guide training programme wherein we work with the youth towards biodiversity assessment. We have given them cameras, binoculars and bird guides. We also conduct workshops where they are taught about snakes, butterflies and frogs.” 

Taukeer Alam, a naturalist in the area, elaborates on the project model, “We conduct two kinds of classes with the youth; the theory class is taught in a classroom, and the other class is field visits in the forest.” 

To extend the programme’s scope beyond the local youth, ‘Chakhuli’, an awareness program was started to target the local communities, especially school children. 

Through guided nature walks and birdwatching trips, the seeds of curiosity are sown in these young minds. The end motive, Taukeer shares, is to transform Rathuadhab into an eco-tourism village. 

This story is part of a content series by The Better India and GreenHub.

All pictures courtesy GreenHub