Sudhir Sundriyal is a man, redefining reverse migration in the Uttarakhand.
After quitting his job as a journalist in the year 2014, Sudhir and his wife donated their organs to the AIIMS hospital in Rishikesh and made their way to their ancestral village Dabra in Chaubattakhaal, Pauri district.
Following year in January 2015, Sudhir formed ‘bhalu Lagad/’भलु लगद‘ Charitable Trust, a Garhwali phrase which in English translates into ‘Feel good.’
Formed with the intention to motivate people to return to their mountains of home, भलु लगद began by building a rain water-reserve in the village to sustain farming in parched months, an initiative which inspired neighbouring villages to build a similar reservoir.
Soon Feel-good Knowledge and Information Center was raised, a popular hang out for young and old from the village. Equipped with a library, projector, computer, newspapers, magazines, this community centre binds the village folks together.
Along with this, the Trust also runs simultaneous extra-classes for students from in and around Dabra to mentally and physically stimulate young minds.
‘भलु लगद‘ works in the field of Education, Agriculture and Environmental issues that are pertinent to Garhwal Himalaya even today. Close to a dozen farming models on apple, walnut, cardamom, kiwi, lemon, beetle leaf cultivation are success stories for others to imitate.
Recently, Sudhir experimented with Beetle leaf cultivation from a cutting that he got while on training at the Garhwal University, in Srinagar.
Talking to Newspost, Sudhir tells us, “we tried to experiment in the field of agriculture. Growing Beetle leaf was part of the experiment and seeing its produce we are hopeful that hill-folks will look at it as an alternate cash crop.“
Sudhir Sundriyal and his wife bring alive the saying ‘Helping hands are better than praying lips.’ They live by example and transform lives by their initiative.
