DEHRADUN: Saud village in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand has become an example of entrepreneurship and self-employment with 60 out of 85 families converting their homes into eco-friendly, sustainable homestays. This has not helped them sustain themselves but has also helped generate employment and checked migration.
The location of the scenic village at an altitude of around 10,000 feet adjacent to Govind Wildlife Sanctuary and famous Kedar Kantha trek is ideal for such an enterprise as the area gets thousands of tourists.
Officials from the state tourism department said various schemes have been launched to promote homestays in the mountainous areas of Uttarakhand. Rahul Chaube, district tourism officer, Uttarakashi, said, “The village has become a model village for homestay, which has been made possible by enterprising people as well as government help, with aids under schemes like Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Yojana. We are working towards encouraging many other village pockets to emulate this model.”
The state government had launched the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Yojana in 2002 to support people who want to start any kind of tourism business under which subsidy of up to Rs 15 lakh is provided. The scheme is believed to have helped check the migration of at least 10,000 people in the state since its inception in 2002.
Chain Singh Rawat, a villagee who is among the pioneers of homestay in the area, said, “Homestays can become the backbone of the village tourism in Uttarakhand. Our state is blessed with abundance of natural treasure --- mountains, rivers, forests and wildlife. Ghost villages can become hotspots of eco-friendly and sustainable tourism activity.”
“Everyone has heard about Auli but Kedar Kantha was not well-known. I thought this can a good destination for those like adventure tourism, trekking and related activities. The number of tourists arriving here touched 95,000 last year,” added Rawat.
The income of the families has also registered increased. Jagmohan Pokhriyal, a local resident said, “Due to consistent efforts and help from the government, the income has gone up two-three times in the last few years, generating employment and bringing down the migration from the area.”
Migration has been a major issue in Uttarakhand which has enormous potential for adventure and tourism. An RTI reply in January 2021 revealed 73,072 people migrated from Uttarkashi in last 10 years while over 5 lakh people have migrated from the state in 10 years.