Our Initiatives
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Skill Development & Livelihood
Setting up Skill Centres in partnership with NSDC & Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship across TIH.
Handlooms of The Hills: The Wool Transformation Project
- Providing Improvised Looms.
- Revisiting the Charkha Project: Setting up spinning centres & Yarn Banks for artisans to get cheap and good quality material.
- Undertaking Design Intervention, Knitting , Dying & Loom Improvisation Projects.
Promoting Nature Centred Enterprises
- Trainings on setting up Micro Solar Enterprises, Hydro Engineers & Assistants
- Promoting Waste Management Ventures: E Waste Enterprises, Plastic Granule Making, Waste Tyre to Rubber
Powder & Carbon Unit, Steel Scrap Unit, Hand Made Paper Unit
Skill Development & Livelihood In Agriculture & Forest Based Enterprises
- Forming FPOs by consolidating small land holdings: Small land holding is a strong deterrent in increasing farm productivity
- Setting up a Appropriate Rural Technology Centre for promoting food processing and value addition to progressive farmers
- Partnering with DIHAR for Innovative Mountain Farming: This includes High Altitude Green House Technology, High Altitude Medicinal Plants, High Altitude Vegetable Seeds, High Altitude Mulching Tech, High Altitude Storage & Food Processing Tech
- Beekeeping
- Trainings of Best Mountain Irrigation Methods like Upland Irrigation, Gravity Fed Irrigation System etc.
- Fodder Growing Projects: Growing Fodder on Trenches & Slopes to prevent erosion & provide fodder for dairy
- Nursery & Seed Banks for Indigenous Plants, Income Generating herbs, exotic vegetables and fruits and Broad Leaf Tree Species for agro forestry and water conservation.
- Devising a new system of pooling transport for transportation of agri goods and commodities in the hills.
Training of Himalayan Sevaks
Health: Training Bare Foot Doctors in Tele Medicines & First Stage Cure,
Environment
Creating Barefoot Engineers:
- Barefoot Masons: Training on Building Bio Sand Toilets, Bio Sand Filters, Smokeless Chulahas, Eco Friendly Structures
- Jal Sevaks: Barefoot Hydrologist, Contour Keepers & Making Bio Sand Filters
- Urja Sevaks: Bare Foot Solar Engineers, Setting up Micro Solar Enterprises, Hydro Engineers & Assistants
Education:
- Upgrading the infrastructure of schools in border areas under Border Area Development Mission: Schools are provided with Solar Energy, Computers & Digital Classrooms.
- Employability Skills Training Program: Providing Personality Development, English Speaking, Resume Writing & Interview Skills training in Higher Secondary Schools & Colleges of hill districts.
- Setting Up of Rural Libraries
- Scholarships for Girl Students
- Development of curriculum centric to Himalayas, region specific courses, natural habitat, classwork & dissemination of knowledge in classrooms, while including capacity building of teachers across educational institutions.
ENVIRONMENT
Spring Revival Mission
The source of every major river in the country is symbolically represented by a system of springs that is often religiously revered. Springs are natural point sources of groundwater discharge and are part of a sub-surface system of aquifers that follows hydrogeological principles. Springs have been a vital source of groundwater in all the mountainous regions across the world and millions of springs form the life-line for people in the Himalayan and sub Himalayan regions. An increased demand in these regions has accompanied a decline in spring discharges, due to various factors, one of which is the change and variability in climate.
A ‘spring shed’ approach includes a combination of landscape, watershed and aquifer as units of spring water management and holds the potential to focus on groundwater management for the mountain regions that form such an integral component of India’s diverse landscape.
WATER: Basin Management Program
YLTP will be conducted to select motivated youths who will be trained to become Jal Sevaks, Barefoot Hydrologist & Barefoot Masons who will undertake the below mentioned activities:
- Prepare Village wise Water Security Plans: This will create awareness amongst villagers and a need to conserve water.
- Awareness & Training on Domestic & Institutional Rain Water Harvesting: Setting Up Blue Schools & Blue villages that harness rain water.
- Tree Plantation (Broad Leaf Tree Species) on river beds & Construction of Recharge Wells.
- Spring Cleaning & Recharging in coordination with ACWADAM Pune & ATREE: For this we will train community youths to become barefoot hydrologist who will undertake surveys, map the catchment areas and make recharge zones.
- Reviving/upgrading traditional water mills.
- Make a master sheet for Springs in Himalayas & Develop a Himalayan Spring Atlas & a portal to map and geo tag springs.
Waste Management
- Village Waste Entrepreneurs: Setting up Ethical Enterprises in the field of Waste Management like: E Waste Enterprises, Plastic Granule Making, Converting Waste Tyre to Rubber Powder & Carbon Unit, Steel Scrap
Unit, Hand Made Paper Unit Etc.
- Undertake Waste Management Projects in coordination with Municipal Corporations of Hill Cities like Almora, Pithorgarh, Nainital, Shimla, Shillong, Palampur, Dharmshala, Leh & Srinagar.
- Village Wise Awareness Campaign on Home Composting
- Waste Management Projects @ Char Dham: Funder UNDP
- Pine Needle Briquetting Project
Van Dhan (Preserving Himalayan Bio Diversity & Forest Cover)
This will be done by YLTP youths who will be trained on forest conservation & tree plantation by MOEF & WWF Foundation to become Van Sevaks.
- Plantation to protect Landslides: Planting Broad Leaf Trees Species on Hill sides to prevent soil erosion & Fodder Grass and shrubs alongside contour trenches and terraces to ensure domestic animals don’t graze in forest & kill saplings of long leaf trees.
- Reduce Human & Wildlife conflict by planting of Food Trees in Forest: Conflict has increased due to invasive species and lack of sufficient food for animals inside forest. This is the main reason for maximum people leaving farming in the hills.
- Finding economic utilities for Pine Needles: Clearing of the same will promote vegetation & prevent forest fires.
- Organising Training sessions for van panchayats on forest conservation.
- Create demo sites for training village youths on Agro forestry.
- Taru Bandhan: Initiative to inspire women to tie Rakhee to trees
Clean Energy
- Setting Up a Centre for Clean Energy Enterprises. Funder Schneider Electric
- Promoting and setting enterprises for low cost solar technologies in the field of Food Processing: Low Cost Solar Dryers, Solar Rice Cookers, Water Distillation through Hydro & Pine Needles, Gharrat Chakki System & promoting micro food processing units that run on renewable energy.
- Pine Needles Project: Converting Pine Needles into Bio Fuel, Briquettes & Furniture.
- PICO Hydro Projects for generating energy for domestic and commercial use.
- Hydraulic Ram Pumps Project to drinking water and low cost irrigation.
ART, CULTURE & HUMAN VALUES
Organising Conferences & Festivals to promote Himalayan Art & Culture.
- Creating Model Villages at Tourist Sites
- Introducing Participatory Governance & Youth Parliament System for Hill Panchayats & having Capacity Building Programs for Panchayats & District Administrations.
- Promoting Local Dishes Nationally & Internationally: Requesting International Chefs to make Dishes from local specialities.
- Voice of Himalayas: Having Local/National Events & Conferences on local Folklore, Music, Poetry. Having Story Telling Sessions.
- Improving Social Life of Locals through Rural Libraries, Weekly Theatre, Games, Himalayan Radio
- Having Events that inspire like minded individuals to come and spend time in Himalayas: Run For Himalayas, Paint for Himalayas, Play for Himalayas
HEALTH & WELL BEING
Bio Health
- Doing Tree Plantation in landslide areas, Planting Trees & Fodder Shrubs at trenches & Spring Catchments. Setting Nurseries for broad leaf trees.
Human Health
- Training Bare Foot Doctors to Set Up Mobile Health Kiosk, Tele Medicine Units & Mobile Clinics & Pharmacy
- Capacity Building Training Program for Anganwadi Asha Workers. Providing Delivery Kits to them
- De Addiction Programs & De Addiction Centers for Youths
- Himalayan Cataract Project: Doing Free Eye Check Up & Cataract Treatments for Elders
- Construction of Eco Sans Toilets
Women Health Project
- Improving Women Menstrual Hygiene in mountain villages. Awareness Programs clubbed with setting up micro enterprises for Making Eco Friendly Sanitary Pads
- Setting up Eco Stoves & smokeless chulahas.