‘Tourism is our only option’: the community banking on birding in north India

A new initiative in a Himalayan wildlife sanctuary is attracting birdwatchers and hikers to the remote foothills, and offering vulnerable villages a lifeline

With the morning sun on her face, Kamla Joshi sits outside her house in Dalar village peeling potatoes, preparing a celebration dish for Holi. I ponder whether I should pitch in, but there are constant distractions: the toddler being chased by her grandad, the buffalo shifting listlessly in the yard, and not least the view of Trisul – a snow-smothered Himalayan knife-edge that rears above the oak trees and mustard flowers of Kamla’s garden in the Kumaon Hills.

But I’ve only stopped for a cup of spicy chai and it isn’t long before I’m on my feet again, following a hiking path through Dalar with my guide Hem, Kamla’s husband. Our tea break was partly so that Hem could show off his family and the new homestay he’s building in the village where he was born, helped by money he earns as a guide with Village Ways in Binsar wildlife sanctuary. This 50 sq km reserve in Uttarakhand, a forested northern state backing on to the Himalayas, feels far off the tourist trail and is a haven for birds.