HIMALAYAN ETHNO BOTANIC GARDEN SOCIETY WESTERN BINSAR VALLEY

Organization / Farm - Himalayan Ethno Botanic Garden society
Contact - Pankaj Bhakuni, cell: +91 783051 4041
Email - bhakuni_pankaj@yahoo.com, voiceofhimalaya@gmail.com or mayoliorganic@gmail.com
Location – Village, Inakot Basouli, Western Binsar Valley.
Middle Himalayas, elevation 1806m.
(25km distance of Almora),
District – Almora.
Uttarakhand, INDIA.
Surrounded by the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Description of organic activities.
We are Non-Profit Organization, initiated because of the need to bring back bio diversity as well as traditional farming methods traditional knowledge and vegetation endemic to the Kumaon region of the Himalayas. Revival of cultural artifacts is a natural extension of this anthropological story.
In the background of the mass migration to the city of Delhi and other megalopolises, our villages are becoming bereft of youthful energy to keep our farms alive and to carry our local traditions that are so rapidly being lost. We are loosing the very blueprint of traditional knowledge, method and practices that get carried across generations. Women by default are now the only carriers of traditional knowledge that helps in maintaining basic livelihoods. Therefore they are the natural change agency as envisaged in our vision.
Much has been said in world forums regarding the objectives and methods of alternative organizations on the planet. We do not wish to repeat what is already well known. We live and learn and gather and reinvent according to the needs and vicissitudes of the local possibilities and resource constraints.
Given this context and background, our NGO encourages local farmers to switch to organic methods and have their produce sold through a processing unit that we are in the midst of establishing. We are currently setting up greenhouses and seed banks in order to provide organic seedlings of local fruit trees, vegetables and herbs, whose cultivation is rapidly becoming extinct.
At our farm site presently we have a central house, another for volunteers and guests, a running kitchen and other basic facilities. Surrounded by old growth mixed forest, there is a vegetable and fruit garden, tended by organization members and volunteers. This setup provides the essential learning space for everybody involved in the venture including the local farmers.
This learning space provides for hands-on knowledge and instruction about the synergy between forest and farmland so essential for traditional cultivation in the Himalayas. It must be stated that the rural landscape in the mountainous region has been transformed by India’s colonial experience. This context has to be understood, and is therefore part of the practical learning and education at the site. In fact in principle our site offers vignettes of world ecology in its historical aspects at a glance.
We wish to highlight that only the economics effects of colonization have been properly documented and were indeed the inspiration for India’s freedom movement. The long-term ecological effects of colonization have not been either documented or understood. We wish to graphically represent this phenomenon as a practical adventure education and its hazards that we have to contend with daily. This relates, to take one example, with the forest fires due to monocultural propagation of single plantation species through government initiatives in the colonial and postcolonial period. Coupled with the uncertainty brought about by climate change, this disturbance in the moisture regimen through human intervention has a great bearing on agricultural and horticultural practices. Given this context, our experiences and experiments not only help us but the farmers of the whole area, in selecting the species that can become commercially viable in the long run. This whole process comes across as a highly informative and educative experience for all stakeholders. Creating endurable livelihoods in the area is after all the eventual objective of the venture.
It is well known following the same policies as were instituted by the British colonialism to deal with Indian nature. Indian forest department has practiced replication of the same folly after independence. The question to ask our self is how to create a self-sustaining business within these constraints. How to create knowledge centre and appropriate practices in the field is the challenge!
Our greenhouse has a decent enough seed bank, considering the limitation of the resources that we have to function within. We struggle on.
This farm, of the HEBGS fulfils all the parameters under which a farmland is deemed organic. This has been so ever since its inception at least five generation ago (nearly about 100 years), when it was established by Family elders. The reason for this is primarily its location, as the farm is singularly surrounded by hundreds of hectares of reserved forest; i.e. there is no ambient contamination from nearby farms and other lands. In effect it provides conditions for a naturally sterilized laboratory situation right in the middle of the forest, in order to carry out organic experimentation.
Besides, as is well known, the role of institutions providing certification is it self suspect. However, since such certifications are a statutory requirement for marketing and commercial up scaling of the produce, we shall acquire the same as and when the need arises and our resources allow us to do so.
Our Organization also has a education centre in the valley with our office where we are currently offering computer software classes, hoping that their digital and cyber skill will dovetail in the spread of traditional knowledge, besides giving them the basis to succeed in whichever profession they wish to choose as their livelihood opportunities.
Teaching other skills and trades we can also help slow down the city migration and offer our village tools to make an income. We would like to eventually teach computer hardware, toy making, knitting, and bee keeping, etc. Apart from their inputs at the farm, this is an area where differently skilled volunteers can prove to be very useful.
We welcome volunteers who want to live in a small Uttarakhand village to come and teach any skill they would like to share.
Suggested length of stay We welcome anyone to contact us and stay for any period of time, depending on what they are interested in helping with. Volunteers staying with us are requested to pay a minimal amount of rupees 200 per day for their food only.
Accommodation If working on the garden site, we have one Dormitory bedroom with attached bathroom/toilet. We have a separate Kitchen/dining room. There is always a helping hand available for the preparation of the meal. But the happy experience has been that all the people at the farm pitch in to make it a communal event in the best traditions of collective self-help. Food becomes creative, interesting and fun when people from different background intelligently use organic inputs from the farm for culinary experimentation. If working in the village, you have a room and equipped kitchen where you can make your meals. There is a separate bathroom/toilet.
Expectation of volunteers To help out with current projects, use their skills and experience to enrich and develop as well as enjoy the silence and natural beauty of the Kumaon hills. We live life at a easy nice pace, so whenever you need time off there is plenty of opportunity to do so.
Diet We cook vegetarian, and we will provide you tea/breakfast/lunch and diner, but you are welcome to cook eggs and/or meat if you wish to. Other specifics Peaceful Kesar Devi and Almora are short distances away if you need to get things or have an outing. All are welcome to experience an ethnic Indian village life with us.

About the HEBG

The HEBG is a registered NGO working on two planes. We are working to support our youth by providing education in different practical skill development. Secondly, we are working with farmers to form the Progressive Organic Farmers Group (POFG) for a collective cultivation of traditional, organic high value crops.

With them, the HEBG works in different ways.

Organic Nursery and Seed bank
On our garden site we are establishing an organic nursery and seed bank to provide the POFG with chemical and GMO free seeds and seedlings of traditional high value herbs, vegetables and fruiting trees to farmers of the Uttarakhand.

Mayoli Organic
Procurement center and Shop
Once the seeds and seedlings are grown, our procurement center will help to process and/or prepare the produce of the POFG to be sold in our shop.

Multi skill Development Education center
Facilities, support and guidance- three factors that are necessary for youth to develop their skills and interests. With this, the Multi skill Development Education center is offering computer classes in computer software. In future we are looking to offer classes in honeybee keeping, toy making, garment design, hand knitting, mobile repairing, computer hardware, and more.
(Collaboration with NCVS Almora for computer classes in the media field)

Information center & Commune
Our information center will provide information to farmers on organic, traditional growing methods as well as marketing support. We will also have a commune setup for visitors at our information center and garden site to help researchers, students, school groups or any other individuals with an interest in nature and agriculture to learn about traditional plants and farming methods.

Thank you.
Pankaj Bhakuni
Founder/Secretary
HEBGS, UTTARAKHAND INDIA.