Uttarakhand's hillsides are cursed with forest fires in the dry summer months. But not so in Ufrainkhal in Pauri Gawhwal district. The reason is that Sachidanand Bharati, a college teacher, has encouraged villagers to grow local species of trees instead of pines. He has also led an effort that has brought back a network of water bodies of varying sizes. The forest here is now dense and the forest floor moist.
Bharati has, through these interventions, ensured that rainwater no longer just flows away. He mobilised the community to dig 12,000 chaals in 136. . .