Saurabh Sharma

Uttarakhand braces itself for dry days

More than 1000 villages of the state are expected to be affected by a severe water crisis.

Posted on 20 Apr, 2018 08:09 PM

Lokesh Verma, a farmer from Nainital’s Chanfi village, says this is the third year in a row that he is bearing losses in agriculture. “I have lost around Rs 2 lakh and there’s a debt of Rs 70,000 to pay off. I grow strawberries, guavas and peas in my 15 bighas of land, but there is not enough water in the hills to irrigate crops properly,” he says.

Lokesh Verma at his farm. (Pic courtesy: 101Reporters)

Can Bundelkhand farmers weather the drought?

Recurrent droughts have left the Bundelkhand region in abject misery. While some farmers are adapting by digging ponds and changing crops, others are leaving for cities or committing suicide.

Posted on 16 Nov, 2017 03:28 PM

On October 22, 35-year-old Lallu Yadav was celebrating Govardhan Pooja, a Hindu festival celebrated after Diwali, in Panchkurha village, almost 22 kms from the district headquarters of Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Farmer Gajraj Yadav has abandoned farming forever. (Source: 101Reporters)

Marta’s toilets relieve villagers of OD shame

An American scholar's effort towards building toilets in Uttar Pradesh villages is bringing dignity to the villagers' life by enabling them to give up open defecation.

Posted on 03 Nov, 2017 02:03 PM

“Earlier, I'd wait till sunset to answer nature's call. In the morning, I'd wait for others to return from the fields so I could go. Quite often, I had to miss school for this very reason. And I'm grown up now; so having a toilet in the house has become a must," says class IX student Jyoti Gaud, a resident of Tiktha Mussallepur village in Jagatpur.

Marta with one of the villagers. (Source: 101Reporters)

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