Nowadays hills of Uttarakhand are undergoing drastic changes. Water sources like springs, non-glacier fed rivers are drying; biodiversity is shrinking, human-wildlife conflicts are increasing day by day. There is a sharp fall in agriculture and horticulture yields, especially in the rabi season as rain and snow in winters is a thing of the past. All these changes are the results of uncontrolled and unscientific cutting of mixes forests since decades.
People living in the hills,have been dependent on forests for their daily needs like firewood, fodder and agricultural equipments. As per the estimates more than eight lakh farmers out of 25 lakh families living in Uttrakhand, use the wooden plough for ploughing fields. A farmer needs, on an average, two grown-up trees to make agricultural equipment like Hal, Nahed, Jua and Danela (local names). As they have no suitable alternatives,they are forced to cut all important trees like Oak,Utish,Falyant etc. to make agricultural equipments. In this way lakhs of trees are cut down annually causing heavy damage to water resources, biodiversity and environment. Besides this cutting of trees and branches for firewood is also causing damage to forests.
Syahi Devi Vikas Samiti, Shitla khet, Almora, a non profit organization which has been running SAVE FORESTS-SAVE LIFE campaign in Syahidevi Shitlakhet region, started raising voice for the suitable alternative of traditional wooden plough since 2003-04. The samiti distribued scores of the metallic plough to farmers in 2005 and 06 but this endevaeur failed as farmers rejected plough after trials in the fields. Samiti kept on sending a request for developing suitable alternatives, to various state level and national institutes.
Later in 2011, then director of Vivekanand Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansath, Almora, a wing of I.C.A.R. and Dr.J.C.Bhatt agreed upon to develop a suitable alternative of traditional wooden plough. Samiti and Sansthan worked together to develop metallic plough and in 2012 a prototype named “V.L.Syahi hal” was launched. But it was not an easy task to replace wooden plough by metallic plow as farmers have been using it since ancient times, therefore the Samiti, with the help of many individuals and organizations, distributed more than 100 metallic ploughs free of cost. Soon farmers started ploughing with v.l.syahi hal and returned with suggestions regarding amendments in it.
At this point of time Uttarakhand government, looking at the benefits of metallic plough over wooden plough, sanctioned a project under Navachar Yojna. A hal yatra was organized by the Samiti and Sansthan in Almora district. On field trials of the metallic plough in more than 30 spots, helped in gaining valuable feedbacks from farmers. Based upon feedbacks,necessary changes were made in the prototype. Then this plough was accepted as an alternative of traditional wooden plough.
Renowned environmentalist Mr.Chandi Prasad Bhatt and his organization came forward and distributed more than 500 metallic ploughs in Pokhari and Dasholi blocks of Chamoli district. Later many governmental and non governmental organisation helped in distributing V.L.Syahi hal to farmers. At present more than 4,500 farmers across six districts of Uttarakhand have left wooden plough for the metallic plough and thousands of grown-up trees are being saved annually.
Besides this, the metallic plough has been recognized as an important tool to save Koshi river under Koshi rejuvenation scheme. This plough can save trees not only in Uttarakhand but also in other hilly districts and areas of the country like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, states of the northeast. In this era of global warming and climate change, every single tree needs to be protected and this metallic plough can save millions of trees all over the country with your support
Please join hands and help in spreading the word about it.