Massive migration leads to 70% agricultural fields going barren in Uttarakhand ?

Massive migration of village population from Uttarakhand hills to the plains for the last few decades have rendered the agricultural fields completely barren with local inhabitants/ village folks left behind, purchasing food items from the local market, leading comfortable life style either through earnings via petty businesses, through contractual labour earnings or salaries drawn from government or private jobs locally.

The delivery of extremely cheap ration under the govt’s antayodhya n BPL schemes is also one of the main factors’that has encouraged these local village inhabitants lead comfortable life styles bidding adieu to traditional farming.

Their dependence on agricultral farming which used to be a traditional phenomena till nineties, is no more in existence as non availability of man power is a major reason leading to hundreds of thousands of acres of land going barren n unproductive in the villages of Uttarakhand.

The roadside lands have been used to construct houses n buildings for commercial earnings.

Majority of the working hands have shifted to the local townships, cities n metropolises for want of jobs, health facilities and quality educational prospects for the children.

Though migration to plains is a continuous process since independence but statistics show rampant exodus from villages to plains after the separate Uttarakhand state came into existence 18 years ago in the year 2000.

It has been estimated through various media reports that more than 30 lakh people from Uttarakhand villages have migrated to towns, cities n metropolises. The migration has been 60 % within Uttarakhand n 40% outside the hilly state.

However, the working hands from Nepal, Bihar n other parts of the country throng here for labour jobs n are gradually settling here finding it a safe haven.

In order to substantiate this contention, I am portraying here status report of my village known as Kathur in Sithonsyun Patti under the jurisdiction of Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand.

I fondly remember that during the eighties, there was complete hustle and bustle in this village with majority of the population living here.

Kathur village is the biggest in the entire Kot Block comprising of four Patties.

It had around 350 houses n a population of around 1500 inhabitants. As the time passes the local inhabitants started migrating out of the village to cities n towns and majority of them shifted to roadside at Daanda Paani.

Today, hardly 70 to eighty families reside here that to partially. The greatest setback due to this uncontroled exodus resulted in complete giving up of agricultural farming which was quite frequent till the eighties.

Today about ninety percent agricultural fields which once used to be fully cultivated are barren with wild plants grown over them exhibiting the sorry state of affairs.

In village Kathur there are vide tracts of plain/ flat agricultural fields capable of producing good quantity or high volume of crops but today they are giving a sorry look.

Some of the constructive n responsible village folks have tried to devise a scheme for collective farming by using tractors n latest agricultural equiments for which the state govt provides maximum subsidy n loan facilities but the situation is so aweful that the younger generation is hardly prepared to do the needful.

Instead they prefer white collar jobs or easy buck through Thekedari, or petty businesses or remaining idle.

Moreover the agricultural fields belongs to different owners who are outside the state and seldom come back.

If somebody desires to do organic farming on these flat farmlands it’s difficult to seek their possession as people owning them are so narrow minded that instead of lending their farmlands on lease they prefer to let them go barren and of no use.

Chakabandi or consolidation of land holdings is the best solution to the healthy organic farming in Uttarakhand villages as farm lands are scattered owned by different people.

Unless or until these scattered farm lands are not consolidated after mutual adjustments within the various owners these scattered agricultural fields are of no use for organic farming on large scale.

The Uttarakhand government should come forward to ensure that CHAKBANDI becomes a reality in Utarakhand failing which the state left with 16 percent farmlands will completely become barren with organic farming becoming the thing of the past.

This a distressing trend which needs to be looked into in all seriousness and depth.

It’s a biggest tragedy and defeats the very concept for which the separate Uttarakhand state came into existence after the sacrifice of 42 precious lives. What’s your take friends?