Mountain Shepherds Initiatives Private Limited took a giant leap today when it launched an online shopping site, Angwal, where people across the world will be able to purchase literature, music, handicrafts and films, all related to life and culture of Uttarakhand on the Internet.

Sunil Kainthola, Director of the company, said with this move, the estimated population of 50 lakh NRIs, who hailed from Uttarakhand, would be able to pick stuff of their own interest from this site. He said, “People who have been working for decades out of limelight will be able to get recognition as well as money for their hard work. This site will also help in spreading the awareness regarding the composite culture of the state,” he said. [more]

Taneesha Kulshresthra
Business Outlook, September 4, 2010

• Mission To turn villagers into guides and hospitality providers for tourists, so they get a fair share of profits from tourism.
• Benefits Villagers have alternative sources of income, while tourists benefit from localised knowledge and handmade products.

The tiny village of Tolma, home to 17 families belonging to the Bhotiya community, lies 8,000 feet above sea level in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR). The only way to reach it is by trudging 3 km up a rocky, slippery pagdandi (walking path) from the nearest motorable road. Tolma is one of the villages that Mountain Shepherds, an adventure tourism company run by members of the Bhotiya tribe, showcases on its tourist expeditions in the Nanda Devi area. As we struggle up the steep incline, making our way through hundreds of pine and devdar trees, one of the villagers, a woman named Bina, insists on adding our backpacks to her burden. We protest, but Sunil Kainthola, co-founder of Mountain Shepherds and our guide on the trek, overrules us. “You are a guest of the village and she will be happy to carry your bag for you,” he declares.

This hospitable nature and the breathtaking scenery have made many a tourist flock to the area. Mountain Shepherds’ objective is to promote adventure tourism in the Himalayas and, consequently, improve the lot of the region’s people. The tourism has given the Bhotiyas, who constitute 17 of the 19 communities in the Indo-Tibetan ethnic group, a lucrative new source of income. [read more]

Also see the following articles from the same issue:

• Myriad faces of tourism
• Bringing them home

Missoula gear drive to begin for mountain guides in India’s Garhwal

It’s time to pony up for Gear for the Garhwal.

The program benefits indigenous mountain guides in the Garhwal region of northern India.

The gear drive is run by Eric Legvold and a University of Montana affiliate program called the Nature-Link Institute, which offers study-abroad programs.

Legvold met the Mountain Shepherd guides when he studied abroad in the area surrounding Nanda Devi, one of the world’s highest peaks. The people in the Niti Valley live a subsistence lifestyle that is buttressed by eco-tourism in the Nandi Devi Biosphere Reserve.

Mountain Shepherds is a group of 44 young people who guide trips in the area. Although the guides are certified by the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, they don’t always have the proper equipment.

And that’s where Nature-Link comes in with its Gear for the Garhwal drive.

The guides are in particular need of three- and four-season tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, and technical jackets and pants. They can also use hiking boots and socks, almost any sort of climbing gear, layered clothing like fleece or down and the sort of stuff you need around camp – headlamps, sleeping pads, camp chairs, stuff sacks.

Starting on Saturday and running until April 30, you can drop gear off at the Trailhead, Pipestone Mountaineering, the University of Montana Outdoor Program and Aerie Backcountry Medicine at 315 S. Fourth St. E.

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.

– By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
Thursday, March 18, 2010

USM organized a wide range of activities during the Uttarakhand movement including staging of street plays, organizing state level workshops, publication of books/posters besides direct participation in the agitation. Presented here are few songs of the period. This particular cassette Uttarakhand Key Rangeet was released by USM in 1994. In the absence of a proper recording studio at Dehradun, Shakti Samuha, Mumbai (Naithani Family) sponsored and organized the recordings at Mumbai. Special thanks to Jyothi !

Madan Duklan wrote this song in September 1994 while traveling back to Dehradun from Delhi. Duklan shared his initial draft with USM members at Tip Top Restaurant on Chakrata Road, Dehradun. Grish Sundriyal (Mamu) did the initial composing along with adding the last para of Kitaktaal. Singer Mrs. Shampa Pakrashi as a concerned Indian provided her valuable support. Shampa Ji is a Mumbai based teacher of Hindustani Classical Vocal

Photo Gallery

Golden early morning sunlight lit the snow-capped 7,800-meter peak, India’s highest, as Nanda Devi glowed with strength, stillness, purity, silence – an awe-inspiring sight in the crisp mountain air. Tourist guides in Seventh Heaven and other next-life holiday paradises may not have many prettier sights to sell.

Meaning “Blessed Goddesses”, “Princess of Mountains”, “Bliss-Giving Goddess” or, perhaps more accurately, “Mother Goddess of the Mountain”, the Nanda Devi area is an United Nations-declared World Heritage Park that ranks among major attractions in Uttarakhand, a state in north India also called “Dev Bhumi” or “Land of Gods”.

The gods can’t be faulted for their taste in real estate, as the Nanda Devi region, including the Valley of Flowers and the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, form one of the more spectacular scenic spots in South Asia.

But beautiful worldly paradises generally have a blighted side and Nanda Devi too, like its more famous cousin Mount Everest, is fighting off an onslaught of pollution, unruly development and other damage from a careless human presence. [more]

– By Raja Murthy
Asia Times, June 23, 2009