NEW DELHI: The Center will adopt four clusters of 60 villages in Uttarakhand and transform them to become self-sustaining in a time bound manner through various scientific interventions.

The interventions will be made in the areas of processing and value addition of milk, honey, mushroom, herbal tea, forest produce, horticulture crops, medicinal & aromatic plants and traditional craft and handloom of the state.

Once this concept is validated in the selected clusters, it will be replicated across large number of village clusters in the country. If it is successfully implemented, the local communities will not be compelled to migrate from their native places in search of jobs and livelihoods to urban areas.

“About a lakh of people will be benefited directly or indirectly through this project in four identified clusters of 60 villages in Uttarakhand for pilot phase which are located at different altitudes (up to 3000 meters)”, said the Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan after launching ‘ Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Vigyan Gram Sankul Pariyojana’ on Friday.

He said, “This project has been inspired by teachings and ideals of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year”.

Four clusters at Gaindikhata, Bazeera, Bhigun (in Garhwal) and Kausani (in Kumaon ) have been selected for the intervention for pilot phase. The project will be implement by the science and technology ministry in association with the Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) and other scientific institutions.

Department of science and technology (DST) of the ministry has committed Rs 6.3 crore as support for a period of three years for this project.

Referring to the Uttarakhand project, an official said, “As the living conditions and resources available at different altitude are relatively different, the adopted strategy would help in creating models that are appropriate for different altitudes and could then be replicated in other hill states as well”.

As part of interventions, the focus will also be given in Uttarakhand on post-harvest processing of Kiwi, Strawberry, Cherry, Tulsi, Adrak, Badi Elaichi through solar drying technology and extraction of apricot oil using cold press technology. Stringent product and process control interventions for energy and water conservation will be ensured through this project.

“The key deliverable in this approach will be to utilise local resources using locally available skill sets and convert them into a high value products so that it sustain the rural population locally”, said the official.

