Projects

Conservation of threatened medicinal plants/trees

Many native medicinal plant species, once found abundantly in the valleys of Kullu, have become scarce and threatened in the wild largely due to population decline attributed to overexploitation, habitat degradation and loss and failure of natural regeneration.   Read more »

Ecological Sanitation

Inadequate sanitation facilities with rising population and declining vegetation cover in most villages have aggravated the problem, especially for women and young girls. Reluctance to construct toilets is largely due lack of awareness and paucity of space in closely settled villages. Those who have constructed the costlier water-based toilets are unable to keep them clean due to scarcity of water. Read more »

Conservation of traditional crops

Cultivation of traditional crops in the recent past has been replaced by cash and horticulture crops and as a result many old varieties of millets and grains are on the verge of extinction.  This change, however, has been accompanied by an agro-technology package that entails copious use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides and other poisons. Most of these changes in cropped species and patterns have benefited the landed classes although the environmental and ecological costs, as they emerge, are going to be disproportionately borne by the poor. Read more »

Conservation of indigenous bees

Forest honey has been collected by mountain people for millennia. Its medicinal value and use as a nutrition supplement is well recognized, making it a high value non-timber forest product (NTFP). Once it was a widely available product with most mountain households engaged in traditional honey collection and rearing .Indiscrimate use of pesticides, change in cropping patterns, and loss of habitat has contributed to a sharp decline in bee populations. Read more »

Education and nutrition programme

The project rationale springs from a growing realization (over the last several years) that, in order to sustain and improve quality of life of the rural poor, quality education of children holds the key to the future and there are NO shortcuts. The problem of poor performance and high dropout rate amongst children esp. girls from poor household can be attributed to poor learning standards in schools, indifferent teaching, lack of involvement of parents and lack of interest in studies amongst children. Read more »