Overview

Avani / Overview

Avani has been working towards developing opportunities for positive change through craft and conservation-based livelihoods among rural communities in the Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts of Uttarakhand. In order to respond to issues around biodiversity loss, human displacement and lack of livelihood, we develop programs that lead to income generation through traditional craft, cultivation of natural dye yielding plants for small as well as marginal farmers, usable energy generation from destructive biomass and rejuvenation of water springs.

Our Textile and Natural Dye Program, Bio Energy Program and the Primary School Program all bring together the concept of creativity, sustainability and design thinking that integrates people and natural resources in one continuous whole.

Organic Harvests and Sustainable Practices to Generate Income All Year Long

Hill agriculture does not provide food security for the entire year. Lack of viable income opportunities combined with low yielding agriculture continues to compel people from these mountainous regions to migrate to urban centres in search of employment. Women and old people continue to remain the majority residents of these villages. The income generation interventions led by Avani work towards improving the quality of life of those who remain in the villages.

Avani is working with the cultivation and harvesting of dye yielding plants as a livelihood option. The local farming communities are engaged in the systematic cultivation of certain dye yielding plants such as turmeric and indigo, which they then sell to Avani for the production of natural dyes. In addition to cultivation, collection and selling of plants and plant parts such as marigold flowers, walnut and pomegranate peels, myrobolan and eupatorium, a local and invasive species of grass also yields the communities supplementary income.

Likewise, the pine needle gasifier plants require the collection of pine needles that is carried out by the local women when they visit the forests to graze their animals. The pine needles are in turn bought by Avani for their use in the power plants. Activities such as the farming of dye yielding plants and collection of pine needles is less labour- and time-intensive and not affected by wildlife, leaving the farmers with time and energy to invest in other activities to augment their incomes. These activities simultaneously also promote the protection of forests and preservation of local natural resources, a crucial advantage in these precarious times of climate change. 

Responsible, Renewable Rainwater Harvesting

While the annual rainfall in this region can average between 2000 to 2500 mm, water scarcity remains a major problem for many villages communities in the high altitude regions. Pine needles cover the forest floor during dry summer months causing rainwater to run down the hill slopes before it percolates into the soil. Forest fires caused during the summers by fallen pine needles cause deforestation. The perennial water springs fall victim to this deforestation impeding all attempts to harvest water from these springs during the spring and summer months. Harvesting rainwater responsibly involves storing water running off from rooftops and can provide much-needed fresh water to families throughout the year.

Avani has endeavoured to introduce these types of water management techniques at its campus in Tripuradevi as well at all its village centres. All the buildings at Avani campus have tanks in the basement where harvested rainwater is stored.

A storage of almost 550,000 litres of rainwater at the campus alone meets our water needs for more than half the year. The same method of harvesting rainwater is employed at the field centres in Sukna, Dharamgarh, Digholi and Chanakana, where together another 127,000 litres of water is harvested. Avani has also helped set up a similar water harvesting system in nine schools in the Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts, harvesting another 270,000 litres of water.

In addition to rainwater harvesting, Avani has built a wastewater treatment system, where all the water consumed on the campus is recycled through a series of anaerobic and aerobic treatment to obtain good quality water for irrigating the community kitchen garden.

Programmes

Textile and Natural Dyes

Avani’s textile initiative began in 1997, in an effort to enhance incomes of very poor families who were also traditional artisans. The crafts of hand spinning, hand weaving and natural dyeing were traditionally practised by some of the local communities in this region. Avani’s textile program created contemporary products with traditional skills to provide stable incomes while ensuring the preservation and revival of traditional skills.

Bio Energy

We have been working on several clean energy technologies including solar energy for rural homes and charcoal as a clean cooking fuel for rural households. These solutions not only provide clean energy, but also contribute to enhancing biodiversity, a major contributor to reducing carbon emissions.

Abhivyakti Primary School

Led under the name Abhivyakti, a school that was established in 2011, Avani’s primary education program blends Montessori and Steiner principles of education to bring innovative learning and teaching methods to this remote Himalayan community, nurturing and developing a new generation of creative minds. Abhivyakti school functions as a child friendly learning centre