DTE docs: How Champawat's women led a silent revolution of saving forests

How far are you willing to go for water and firewood? For us, things are instant, we switch the stove on or turn on a tap and it’s available. But that’s not the case for everyone.

Women in Manar would spend nearly 6-8 hours on average, per day, thrice a week collecting water and firewood. They would walk back home with heavy loads on their heads. This is an average of 800 hours annually just collecting firewood.

But as the forests started to whither away, the journey became long and tiresome. But in a small corner of Champawat district of Uttarakhand, a group of women have led a silent revolution.

Down To Earth’s Bhagirath and Midhun Vijayan visited the Manar Village of Uttarakhand to witness how the Van Sahelis of the Manar Van Panchayat restored 11.6 hectares of degraded forest land, bringing groundwater and greenery back to their land, saving the forest as well as something invaluable, time.