Diseño y desarrollo de la herramienta

20. State capital Dehradoon

Sources: Statistical Bulletin, Uttarakhand. 2001 - Uttaranchal Forest statistics, 2001 Forest Department, Uttaranchal http://envfor.delhi.nic.in/divisions/forprt/JFM/htm/area.htm The state accounts for about 1.69 per cent of the total area of the country and are placed in 18th _{rank in all India level. The}

official language of the state is Hindi with Kumauni and Garhwali as local dialects. Population wise district Nainital is the biggest and the smallest one is Champawat. The main sources of income of the state are from tourism, forestry, horticulture medicinal plant, fodder, mushroom, fishery, silk wool and hydro electricity.

Map of Uttarakhand

Fig-1 Source: http://210.212.78.58/index_town/

In the Tarai and Bhabar regions and Shivalik belt, thirteen per cent areas constitute rural settlement and 60 percent constitute urban settlement. The state demonstrates a wide range of intra regional diversity in respect of topography, climate, cropping pattern, soil texture, habitation, socio economic status, living style and development pattern. About 63 per cent area in the state is under forest. The net sown area is about eight lakh hectares. The population of the state is about eight million out of which 50.21 per cent are male and 49.79 per cent are female. The population consisted of 76 per cent of rural and 24 per cent of urban inhabitants. The literacy rate of the state is 72 per cent.

Seventy per cent of the population is directly and indirectly engaged in agriculture and allied activities.

Agriculture of Uttarakhand

Subsistence agriculture practiced on small terraced fields in Uttarakhand forms the primary source of livelihood for the majority of the state‘s population. About 80 per cent of the working population in remote hill villages is engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry (Sati and Sati, 2000). Due to harsh topography, climate and subsequent inaccessibility of the area, traditional mountain farming systems in Uttarakhand were self-sufficient, self- contained, closed systems, which did not require any outside input. Owing to limitations in the form of lack of irrigation, small and scattered land holdings, low soil-depth, high altitude, heavy rainfall and cold climatic conditions - agriculture in the mountains exhibits a lot of variations in crop diversity, crop composition and crop rotation (Maikhuri et al. 2001).

Moreover, it is also inextricably linked to animal husbandry and forests. Forest biomass fertilizes the fields in the form of organic manure via livestock and through humus coming directly from rainwater run-off from the forests (Jain and Webster, 2001).

Draught animals are the most economical and easily available source of energy for ploughing and post harvest activities. Manpower is also extensively used and sometimes ploughing is also done manually. Women play a key role in hill agriculture, particularly in the context of male workers migrating to the plains for employment. Interestingly, almost all hill women are engaged in agriculture as compared to only 59% men (Chauhan et al.). Agricultural land is scarce and comprises of small terraced plots

carved out of the hillside or cleared forestland. The majority of land area is under rainfed agriculture, and hence the communities are heavily dependent upon rain and snowfall.

Although the vast majority of the state‘s population is dependent upon agriculture, the land area available for cultivation is very limited. In terms of net sown area, agriculture occupies only 14.8 per cent of the total geographical area of the state and this includes areas in the districts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, which have a very high ratio of cultivated area of total land area. Excluding the figures for these two districts, only 10.7 per cent of the remaining land area of Uttarakhand is under cultivation.

The average size of landholdings in the state is also very small. There are an estimated number of ten lakh landholdings in Uttarakhand, 70 per cent of them are less than one hectare in size and the per capita area comes to only 0.8 hectares (Rawat 2001). However, in the Garhwal region alone, the amount of cultivated land per-capita comes to 0.2 ha (Maikhuri et al. 2001). According to Semwal et al. (2001) marginal farmers (landholdings between 0.02-1.0 ha) comprise more than 68 per cent, small farmers (landholdings between 1.0 ha to 4.0 ha) about 29 per cent and big farmers (landholdings between 4.0 and 10.0 ha) only three per cent of the farmers. District-wise, the average size of landholdings, in 1990, varied from 0.54 ha in Pithoragarh to 1.67 ha in Nainital. However, farmers in the plain districts of Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar have much larger land holdings.

The crops and cropping patterns in the hills vary greatly with altitude due to varied climatic conditions, the nature of agricultural land and irrigation. There are two main cropping seasons i.e. Kharif

and Rabi. Kharif season crops occupy about 63 per cent while Rabi season crops account for about 59 per cent of the gross cropped area of the region, with the cropping intensity of 159.29 per cent (Swarup, 1993).

Multi-cropping has been the dominant feature of traditional hill agriculture. It ensures that the multiple needs of the community are satisfied and, at the same time, the health of the agro ecosystem is also maintained. Upland cropping is highly diversified having various combinations of cereals, pulses, millets, oilseeds, pseudo-cereals, beans, vegetables, fruits and spices. The main Kharif season crops comprise: paddy, finger millet, barnyard millet, foxtail millet, maize and pulses. Wheat, barley, lentils, peas and mustard are the main Rabi season crops.

3.2. Description of locale

A brief description of district Nainital

In the state of Uttrakhand, district Nainital lies in the Kumaun division. It is located approximately in between 80º14‘ and 78 º 80‘ east longitudes and 29º00‘ and 29º05‘ north latitude. The foothill area of the district is known as Bhabhar. The underground water level is very deep in this region. As per 1999 records, total average rainfall of the district was 1338.08 mm while total average rainfall up to August 2000 was 1602.69 mm.District Nainital has five tehsils viz. Nainital, Haldwani, Ramnagar, Dhani Kosiha, Katauli, and eleven developmental blocks namely Hawal bagh, Taluka, Bhikiashen, Haldwani, Ramnagar, Bhimtal, Ramgarh, Kotabagh, Betalghat, Dhari and Okhalkanda.

Table 2: District Nainital at a glance (2001 Census)

S.No. Particulars Area (Ha.)

1. Total geographical area 53,448

2. Total forest area 64.81%

3. Cultivable barren land 8719

4. Pasture land 1211