The restoration of the Gagas River Basin is one of the Pan Himalayan Grassroots’ long-term projects in the Kumaon Hills. The mighty Gagas River is drying up, carrying only a fraction of the water it used to. Women and children spend hours to bring a single bucket of water home. Thousand of lives have been affected, and things will only get worse.

Grassroots believes that deforestation is the main cause for the drying up of the Gagas; if the hills are reforested, the river will return to its former self. Their strategy for this is simple - to spread awareness about the causes and effects of deforestation and mobilize people to work to a solution. Grassroots aims to provide assistance in terms of knowledge, appropriate technology and resource management. It is going to be a long and hard struggle whose results will bear fruit only after many years. They believe that things are at a tipping point; if action is not taken now, the damage will be irreversible.

After a three year long campaign in the Dausad Gadhera, not only had they reforested a significant area, but they had also transferred the day-to day running of the project to the people in the area. Today’s meeting would be held with the people from two villages in the Malligaon Gadhera. The aim was to explain their plan for restoring the river basin and to motivate the villagers to act on it. They hoped that the lessons learnt from their work in Dausad would require them to spend only a year in this area. Once done, the villagers would take over the whole project, and Grassroots would withdraw.

Maya, Rashmi and I were picked up from the Umang shop by Anita in her Tavera. Sunita didi and Mr Jagadish Bhandary were there along with Girija, who was spending three weeks at Ranikhet too. After a forty five minute drive, we reached the villages. Two feet before the car stopped the back tyre blew! Small mercy!

Pallavi, Kishan and Amit, all field workers with Grassroots were already there, having spent the entire morning surverying the village and gathering statistics. The villagers had gathered under an oak tree in front of the Panchayat office. A couple of large dhurries were spread on the ground, and we all sat down.

Even though chairs had been arranged for the Grassroots workers, everyone chose to sit on the ground, with the people. Even more significantly, the women were sitting in front.

Following a round of introductions, the Sarpanch and Mr Bhandary spoke, detailing their plan and what they needed from the people.

There were a lot of issues which would have to be tackled simultaneously. The villagers would have to stop allowing animals to graze freely - crops and trees were being ruined and precious topsoil was being eroded. They would need to cut down on the use of firewood as fuel; Grassroots would help them build biogas plants. The people would have to form small groups, each overseeing different tasks. Once the areas were identified, the trees would be planted. They would simultaneously grow fodder on community land. The young saplings would have to be watered and guarded from grazing livestock. People would have to take their animals to different, possibly farther areas.

Most importantly they would have to be patient. It would take a long time for them to see the benefits of their work. As Kishan said “planting the saplings isn’t too much work. It will be done in a day or two. But the real challenge will be in making sure those saplings survive. And for that you will have to work together.”

The meeting went on for two hours! There were views, counter-views, discussions, and even arguments. Anita was quite happy to let it continue. “Let them argue - they need to”.

That was one thing which struck us throughout the meeting. Their people management skills. They knew what the people were thinking; and they knew what to say when. What fascinated us was not what the Grassroots workers said. It was how they said it. The people were made to understand the gravity of the situation they were facing, and were slowly nudged into action.

Anita said “We aren’t getting any personal benefit out of this. We will leave in a couple of hours, and you can continue to do things as you were before. But then what are giving your children?” That really caught their attention.

Anita made it quite clear that there would be no charity. Grassroots would work only as facilitators and advisors. People would have to work hard and take important decisions. Most importantly they would have to work together. Everything would depend on that.

The twenty years of work that Grassroots had put in the Kumaon showed in this meeting. People had heard about them, were willing to listen to them, and to follow them.

Towards the end of the meeting when everyone was asked to make a contribution towards a fund that would be used for the project, one of them men immediatley brought the money saying ,”I’ve been buying calcium chloride from you people since so long. I know you are reliable.”

There was definitely a sense achievement at the end of the meeting. It was something quiet and understated; there was none of the cynicism that you’d expect from people who’d repeatedly been promised so much but had been given so little. The villagers knew something had to be done, but they didn’t know how to go about it. They needed a spark, and that’s what meeting gave them.