Integrated water shed management thro traditional water sourcing

For Basant Pandey, a young environmental activist, living in a remote village Danya in District Almora Uttarakhand has never been a deterrent to stop him taking to social activities. When Green Circle came to know about him and watershed management activities of his NGO HIMAL based at Danya and his desire to revive water bodies in his locality, no one believed that he would have in-depth knowledge about the environmental issues. Green Circle members Selvarajan, Anil Parashar, Muralidhar and Ramesh Murmurku decided to take 14 hours journey to take to the villagers.  At Danya, Almora is a remote and otherwise sleeping village HIMAL, a Danya based NGO working for environment and livelihood under the able guidance of Dwarkaite Ramesh Mumukshu, who is an RTI Activist. Ramesh also works for HIV affected patients. On 22nd April, Ramesh and Basant Pandey of HIMAL, Manoj and Om Prakash of Gandhi Peace Foundation and M/s Anila behan and Pushpa Behen of Sava Shakthi planted a Rose plant to mark the Earth Day. After the planting they also conducted a joint meeting to plan out an action program for revival of traditional water bodies called Naula at Swalambhan Bhawan Danya.. HIMAL members expressed their desire to work with Green Circle for taking steps to improve water resources by rejuvenating traditional water sourcing through naula and exploring other sources like Kuan and bavli. Later on, the entire team visited a 400 year old Naula to explore how this traditional water body caters to the need of the rural people. Green Circle has decided to undertake the construction of a naula at Danya supported by HIMAL and other sansthas of Almora district. Green Circle members also visited Sattal near Nainital and conducted Birdwatching