Environment / Red Dhaan / Water Harvesting in Himachal

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Long time back we were discussing the topic on the effect of the environment on Himachal. I see that did not take off on a serious note. Let us start it once again.

As far as I remember the last point raised by somebody was… “Global warming…” Yes, global warming is there… but that cannot be an excuse to shirk our responsibility. We have to do our bit. Every state is doing its bit on Water harvesting. I think there is a tremendous scope for Water harvesting in Himachal even at the private level, where check dams can be built at the small nallahasthe nallahas that flood during the monsoon and are dry over the year. That can provide solution to many water woes and many other crops that are not grown due to the requirement of water can be grown and revived.

One, I think is the “Red Dhaan (rice)”, which the locals believe has medicinal properties. The locals have the rice even when the doctor advices patients to not eat rice. But this rice needs a lot of water and as a result the variety is getting extinct. And apathetically, there is no research going on in this variety. We need to push forward for a research on this variety and may be bring out a hybrid that requires less variety.

Coming back to environment, with the change in environment, even for apples, we need a research that would bring out a variety of apple trees that can sustain the effect of global warming in the coming years as the temperature is only going to rise and not come down. The snow is only going to melt and fall less and may be five ten years hence … NO SNOW at all. We need to be futuristic and keep that in mind. We need to be ready for that tomorrow and cannot wait this to happen. With our efforts we can delay the effect.

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A perfect story-teller, who is madly in love with the hills. Shimla is his first love, and probably the last too. Won't get tired reading Rudyard Kipling. Hopes to pick up poetry again soon.

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