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The valleys facing snow view peaks have become a major attraction to the potential homebuyers from outside Uttrakhand and this area has witnessed huge construction projects and environmental degradation in this past decade
Scenes of massive landslides in the road connecting Mukteshwar with Bhimtal in the Nainital district of Uttrakhand
Soil Erosion due to large scale deforestation and huge infrastructure development in the Nainital district
Landslides and heavy rainfall have destroyed huge swathes of arable land in villages in and around the district Nainital
Village roads have been destroyed and connectivity has affected the livelihoods of the local people
The villagers have developed a major fear in the past few years regarding whether they can persevere against the harsh extreme weather hazards that continue to threaten their fragile economic and social conditions
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The last picture 😨😰🤯
One of the earliest traits that I noticed when I first had my early acquaintances with the local villagers of Parbada ( a small valley village in the Nainital district of Uttrakhand) was their sheer perseverance on the face of the many hardships that they encountered on a daily basis. Rainfall was sporadic and weather was always unpredictable. Failure of the crops was the norm and a plentiful harvest was a welcome rarity.
Sometimes, torrential rains used to mow down their fields which are already smaller in size in comparison to the average land holding in the plains. Sometimes when the fruits were almost ready for plucking, a hailstorm would destroy months of hardwork and patience. Yet they used to soldier on. The playing field was far from level yet it was manageable. The aspiration for a better harvest next year would still be aflame.
However with the disastrous effects of climate change and its associated extreme weather events, the frequency and intensity of which has increased manifold in the past couple of years, the survival and existence these farmers is at stake here. Agriculture has never been a profitable venture in the valley but with these environmental shocks that precede the economic shocks denting the savings and the capital of these farmers, coupled with the lack of alternative options for most of these uneducated farmers, the circumstances have condemed them to a life of poverty and uncertainty.
Some of the younger farmers have sought to indulge in illegal rock mining and exploiting the remaining resources of the village like the rocks and the trees thus excaberating their hardships. Many have also resorted to selling their lands to potential buyers from outside the state who wreck havoc on the already fragile local ecology with their ambitious construction projects and a host of cottages and resorts that have propped up in the past few years, thus perpetuating the cycle of vulnerability to climate change. This is a story of many questions with few answers. This is a story of the many banes of being a farmer in Uttarakhand.
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