A webinar was organised by CEDAR to present the findings of the project titled, - Feasibility Assessment of Biogas and Evaluating other Alternate Energy Sources in the Mid Mountainous Region of Uttarakhand.

Final project dissemination was moved online due to the impacts of the corona virus. The webinar was attended by several NGOs and funding agency who collaborated throughout the project. A video documentary and a five-set user manual for biogas management system were also presented during the webinar.

CEDAR organized a seminar on "Ecosystem Services in the context of Green Bonus and Ganga Bonus", an initiative taken by Dr. Bharat Jhunjhunwala, Prof. S.P Singh and Dr. Ravi Chopra.
Date: 11^th October, 2019
Venue: Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Cricket tournament was hosted by CEDAR under a Project "Mainstreaming the Role of Ecosystem Services in Water Supply of Nainital” funded by ICLEI South Asia, which is actively working on learning, models, approaches and best practices developed across 10 pilot cities in Asia funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Date: 18^th April, 2018
Venue: Nainital, Uttarakhand

One Swallow does not the Summer Make
By Dr. Ghazala Shahabuddin
Picture Courtesy: Dr. Rajkamal Goswami

One swallow does not the summer make’. This famous line attributed to Aristotle evokes the gregarious barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), a familiar species in the countryside.
In the Indian subcontinent, the barn swallow is a partially migratory species that breeds in the Himalayas in the summer, also crossing over to northern climes of Asia. In the difficult winter months, it makes the subcontinent its home. Recognised by its streamlined slender build, shiny dark-blue back, prominent white belly and a deep forked tail, it makes its mud nest under bridges, under the eaves of old buildings and even in the verandahs of occupied houses. It is a largely aerial species, mostly seen when it is expertly catching insects on the wing, as it flies low above fields, villages and ponds. In Kumaon, this bird is loved by the local shopkeepers and eatery-owners who allow these birds to nest and roost inside their shops. The shopkeepers do not mind the noisy squabbling of the chicks as they are fed and finally fledge and even keep their shop shutters ajar to allow the bird to fly in and out. Perhaps the bird provides the service of controlling agricultural pests which has been recognised by the people. The barn swallow provides an example of the traditional people-nature interactions in Kumaon that are responsible for much biodiversity even in the midst of human settlements.
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Beauty is only skin deep
By Dr. Rajesh Thadani
Picture Courtesy: Team CEDAR

Natural ecosystems are critical for human well being. This much is well understood. Benefits to humans from nature are collectively termed as ecosystem services. These include a range of goods and services, from wild fruits and medicines to biodiversity, natural beauty and aesthetics. The most important ecosystem services though are those that we barely perceive – the formation of soil for example, or reduction of pollutants from air or water passing through a forest, or the recycling of nutrients.
My thoughts about that which is unseen come from a recent report I read. An expert opinion on rejuvenating Sukhatal. Sukha-tal (or dry lake) is a small ephemeral lake just upstream of Naini tal, the lake that gives Nainital town its name. CEDAR has invested considerable efforts in raising awareness about Sukhatal which appears to be the main source of subsurface recharge to lake Nainital. The soils in the lake bed of Sukhatal are highly permeable, and below the lake are several faults and fractures. Rainwater fills Sukhatal but then rapidly seeps through the permeable soils into the aquifer below. The combinations of rocks and fractures below Sukhatal allow water from this aquifer to gradually seep into Naini lake – or Naini tal.
This subterranean seepage of water in the rainless months keeps Nainital full and maintains its beauty for tourists. Sukhatal’s own beauty is unremarkable. Once it is dry, a few weeks after the last rains of monsoon, it becomes a bare piece of land – a wasted flat space ripe for encroachment – some of which has occurred. It was this neglect that CEDAR focussed on through its work these past few years. However, a recent plan commissioned by the administration brings a new threat. The plan calls for the rejuvenation of Sukhatal. This rejuvenation will be through beautification. Walkways and tourist attractions are to be built around the lake and a geo-synthetic clay liner will prevent water from seeping through the lake bed. This may make Sukhatal more attractive to tourists, but what will it do to the town of Nainital? Nainital depends on its lake not just for tourism - but its very existence. All water supply to the town directly or indirectly emanates from Naini lake. Removing the most important source of sub-surface recharge can immeasurably damage Naini lake and the economy of the town.
It is imperative to understand this linkage between these two lakes. Changing Sukhatal will change Nainital. Enhancing Sukhatal’s beauty is all very well, but making the lake bed impermeable will destroy the soul of Sukhatal. And this can then strip away the beauty of Nainital and reveal the ugliness that lies just below the surface.
Beauty is only skin deep wrote Sir Thomas Overbury some four hundred years ago. A proverb that has come to mean that a pleasing appearance is not a guide to ones character or inherent quality. The superficiality of beauty can be extended beyond humans - to nature and natural environments as well. Sukhatals importance lies in the ecosystem function it provides to Nainital. Let not that be damaged in the name of beautification.
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Water Woes
By Mr. Tanmay Pisolker
Picture Courtesy: Mr. Prateek Sengupta

A 6 years old carrying 5 ltrs; early morning, everyday and yet another trip waits for her. She might not know what she is missing at the school today. Intellectuals say that everything will be sorted with salt water; tears, sweat or ocean. Well, they should have visited the low hills of Himalayas to see non smiling faces of little girls and sweat marks on their forehead just to get a bucket full of drinking water every day. The early morning of any hamlet in Devprayag starts with children lining up in water queue either at a Hand-pump, Stand-post or at spring which could be 500 meters downhill.
When you cover that distance with 15 ltrs of water can every day from such tender ages, you don’t need gym trainer to develop your muscles in your teen-age, but you may need a teacher who will have to help you cope with whatever you have missed out in those early classes, while trying to hunt water.
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CEDAR takes to the Radio Waves
By Beth Barker
Picture Courtesy: Team CEDAR

As the physician associates the patient with his own cure, so must the planner appeal to the citizen.
CEDAR and Radio Khushi 90.4 FM have embarked on a four-month radio-series on natural resource management with special emphasis on water security in Uttarakhand. The aim is simple, communicate with local people, give them a platform to voice their concerns and together find locally appropriate solutions.
As CEDAR’s Executive Director Dr Rajesh Thadani once said: “Knowledge limited to academic publication is of limited relevance”. Therefore, CEDAR is striving to find new ways to communicate their research on ecosystem services to the people who use them. Local radio presents an exciting new opportunity for CEDAR to reach out to people who may not use social media. As Dr Singh said “radio will allow us to reach the last corner of the village. These people are at the core of the community and need to have their questions and voices heard”. Furthermore, Dr Singh made the important point that those who are most vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change are often those who are least connected through modern technology and least able to get their voices heard.
Currently, CEDAR in collaboration with South Asia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), Kathmandu, Nepal is working on Climate Adaptive Water Management Practices and Solutions (CAWMPS) across four cities in India and Nepal, Mussoorie is one of the town that the team is focussing. The three year project is funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada.
Radio Khushi is a community radio station which uses interactive media to connect, educate and inspire people. A partnership with CEDAR will allow the station to explore socio-environmental issues using CEDAR’s expertise, hear listener’s views and galvanise action. This partnership is being facilitated by Ideosync Media Combine (IMC). IMC aims to use media to accelerate communication and behavioural change for the social, economic and environmental development of communities. This harmonises with CEDAR’s belief in the importance of citizen science in socio-environmental research, only through stakeholder participation can issue be understood and appropriate solutions are found. It is the ‘tyranny of the expert’ which frequently hinders development because when local knowledge is excluded the proposed solutions are unlikely to be locally sustainable.
Together CEDAR, Radio Khushi and ICM have developed a radio-series strategy. An overarching theme of ‘natural resource management’ was settled and issues of water security in small and medium towns in the Himalayan region to be of prime focus.One important point agreed by all partners was the importance of female participation. While women can be some of the strongest activists on social and environmental issues, they are too often left out of decision making. It was agreed that the radio-series would cover the geographical area of Uttarakhand but focus on the regions where CEDAR has the expertise, case study examples and success stories. These include CEDAR’s work climate change adaptation, urbanization and water security.The first live show was aired Thursday 11th October 2018 and was a great success with Dr Vishal Singh (CEDAR’s Deputy Executive Director) being interviewed by RJ Ashish (Radio Khushi’s Jockey). The programme started by introducing CEDAR as an organisation which focuses on research and research use. CEDAR was founded on the realisation that there is a gap between academics, grassroots workers and planning practitioners, CEDAR aims to bridge this gap through their multi-disciplinary approach. Dr Singh pointed out that many of the NGOs working in the region on socio-environmental issues work in isolation and there is an urgent need for more cross-disciplinary research and collective action. He asserted that citizens play a crucial part in the process, local knowledge is rich and often untapped by ‘scientific experts’. Dr Singh gave a very good example of the importance of traditional knowledge and loss if it is ignored. He explained that there is only one person left in the Kumaon region who knows how to make Naulas, a traditional surface-water harvesting method typical to the hill areas of Uttarakhand. He lamented how good traditional methods have been forgotten and how the adoption of new technology has often led to environmental degradation.
The show also discussed CEDAR specific work. Dr Singh described how CEDAR focuses on the themes of forestry, urbanisation and water biodiversity and wildlife. Regarding water security Cedar is examining how population rise, unplanned development, climate change andtourism are contributing to water insecurity in towns of Himalaya alongside environmental degradation and climate change. RJ Ashish picked up on the climate change theme and described how residents in Mussoorie were noticing the early flowering of the Rhododendrons, delayed monsoon and declining winter rainfall. This is a key example of citizens being able to observe and record change over time. Dr Singh confirmed these observations and asserted that they are a serious concern.
A key point leading on from this discussion was that the rapid drying up of springs and depleting lake levels are a serious problem. Dr Singh said, “springs and lakes are shared resources shared resource to reap the benefits from, but nobody wants to conserve it”. This is a classic example of the tragedy of the commons. Collective conservation and sustainable use are needed urgently. However, it is easy to use buzzwords like ‘sustainability’ and ‘collective active’ but the real questions are how is this achieved and by whom? Perhaps this radio series can be a step towards finding answers to these questions as researchers collaborate with listeners.
It was at this point that a listener phoned in with an excellent question, “if there are so many NGOs working in this area why is there no output?” This question exemplifies the gap between research and the local people. Dr Singh explained that it is not that the work is not being done but that the output is not in the public domain or even when it is, it is not accessible. The accessibility of knowledge is as important as producing that knowledge in the first place.
This led onto a second good question from a listener, they said “to achieve anything citizen support is needed. But Bringing people of different opinions together becomes a challenge. How do you manage it?” Dr Singh explained how this is always a big challenge for CEDAR, for sustainable solutions to be found and successfully implemented policymakers, experts, activists and other stakeholders must all be brought together. However, even when a platform is provided it can be difficult to encourage stakeholders to come. Therefore, research NGOs must strive to make their research accessible. But equally, stakeholders must engage and share their ideas.
Dr Vishal Singh offered a great example of mass stakeholder engagement. In Nainital, the lake is being degraded and a meeting was held with the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and the people of Nainital. CEDAR laid out their out their research on how the encroachment of Sukhatal lake is disturbing Naini lake level and a decision was made to rectify the problem. “It started with people, it was taken forward by people and then the people helped in the decision-making process of the government” (Dr Singh). The most iconic symbol of this success story was the over 1000 people who undertook a bare-foot silent march around the lake to raise awareness for its degradation and the need for conservation. This is a powerful example of how many people with different opinions can be brought together to create change.
Overall the radio show emphasised that technocratic solutions will only go so far and citizen participation is crucial. This initiativeaims to disseminate CEDAR’s research in an accessible form, reach all corners of the community and bringeveryone into the discussion. If you want to hear CEDAR researchers talk more about their research and address interesting questions from listeners across Uttarakhand, tune in every Thursday at 90.4FM..
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The morning I met Noon
By Dr. Ghazala Shahabuddin4
Picture Courtesy: Dr. Rajkamal Goswami

In the remote, large swathes of endless dense evergreen forests of Jaintia Hills which straddle the north-eastern part of Meghalaya community based hunting is an enterprise which caters to the cash requirements of local people. People hunt for their own consumption as well as to sell to wildlife traffickers and local traders, a practice that has endangered many mammal, bird and reptile species in the region.
One morning, during our wildlife survey in the Narpuh Reserved Forest in the Jaintia Hills, we encountered five huntersall of who unhesitatingly emerged towards our makeshift camp from the dense foliage, mistaking us for just another hunting party. All of them but one, whom I named ‘Noon’ in my notes, was friendly and listened patiently to our advice on the ill effects of hunting.
Noon was the last to arrive, just as we were having our second quota of morning rice. He refused the rice that we offered him as he came and sat beside me. By this time he had guessed that we weren’t fellow-hunters. To break the ice, I asked his name. His reply was a terse question-“tum log kon hai?” (who are you guys?), followed by his reply to his own question: Forest? By this time he had cocked his gun and now held it with a finger on the trigger. There was palpable tension in the air now.Wedge-tailed green pigeons, great barbets and sultan tits called repetitiously in the background.
Before I could reply, he demanded to know what we were doing in ‘their’ jungle? In his words, “God created these forests for us to survive, because the yield from jhum (Swidden farming) is no longer adequate.”
My reply roughly translated to “if hunting isn’t controlled, very soon these forests will be like your inadequate jhums. Moreover, as Narpuhhas now, been declared as a Sanctuary, anti-poaching patrolling and research will increase the monitoring of these forests, which might curb hunting.” My reply was triggered by field evidence that numerous wild species traded for their parts have either completely disappeared such as tigersand gaur or survives in dangerously low numbers such as leopard and Chinese pangolin.
By now one could cut the tension with a knife, as he started his monologue, “who gave you the rights? This is our forest. We have been using this area for a very long time. Before me, my father and my grandfather used to come. And after me my sons, and their sons will come too. We are poor people. I have never seen you guys here during the last thirty years that I have been coming to these jungles. And now you suddenly come and set up rules? No, the repercussions won’t be pleasant.” All the while, he was holding the live gun, in a way that he could fire in seconds if required or provoked. Rather than combat his arguments further, and in an attempt to lighten the mood, I merely asked him: From where have you come? His reply suggested that he was still being combative: “From very far”. “Ok”, I asked, “from Assam or Meghalaya?” He said “Assam. From a village which is thirty kms away. I spend weeks and days in these forests. You will never survive here.”
Suddenly he seemed to ease a little bit. May be it was the memory of his village or maybe our apparent vulnerability due to our team’s pathetic jungle surviving skills. He un-cocked his gun, slung it across his shoulder and walked up to a place near the stream where there was bare soil. He started digging up the soil to take out a betel nut, where either he or someone else might have been storing the nuts since a long time. This practice allows a sure supply of ready-to-eat fermented nuts. After he washed and cut the nuts, we offered him the leaves and he was gracious enough to share his nuts with us. Chewing nuts is a good way to stop a conversation and say good bye in Assam and Meghalaya. Everyone leaves happy and a little high. So I too took that opportunity and went about meeting the sampling targets of the reminder of the day.
Noon’s comments betrayed an overtly simple biblical outlook about forests and wildlife being created by God for the exclusive use of humans. And based on my countless hours of conversations with people who hunt in this region, Noon perfectly articulates how most of them feel about the forests and wildlife around them. The endangerment of species, while supported by field data, is not something that is of concern to locals. They live from hand-to-mouth, in a particularly undeveloped and poor region of north-eastern India.It is time to think more holistically about how the challenge to wildlife from local hunting practices can be countered.In this regard, along with the Forest Department, awareness meetings in the villages with highest hunting pressures were organised to discuss the illegal nature and ill-effects of hunting on wildlife and forests. Discussions are also on about how they can benefit from government schemes which aims to promote forest-friendly ecotourism and agro-forestry in the region.
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Multiple cavities by Woodpecker in a single tree
By Dr. Rajkamal Goswami
Picture Courtesy: Dr. Rajkamal Goswami

Woodpeckers are well-known for being efficient ‘bark-gleaners’, that is, searching for insects in the crevices of the trunks and branches of trees and for creating holes (cavities) for nesting. Apart from insects, woodpeckers also eat fruit, acorns and nuts. Woodpeckers make an important target group for conservation, because their presence in the forest is correlated with the survival of a variety of other organisms.
Woodpeckers thrive in forests with abundance and diversity of trees, as also dead trees in different stages of decay. Being dependent on healthy forests, woodpeckers are particularly sensitive to forest degradation and modifications including those related to forest management and exploitation.
Operations like logging, systematic manipulation of forest structure, plantation and fuel wood extraction are likely to have an impact on the woodpecker community. Large-bodied woodpeckers are affected by these operations to a much greater degree than smaller ones as they require larger trees for nesting, roosting and foraging. Sadly, such trees are usually the first target of silvicultural practices. Therefore, old-growth forests with large trees are critical for conservation of the entire woodpecker community.
Source: Excerpts from research by Dr. Ghazala Shahabuddin & Raman Kumar on ‘Assessing Conservation Threat in an Endemic Bird Area: The Great Slaty Woodpecker in Sub-Himalayan Uttarakhand’
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Mangar forests a crucial bird habitat

Massive Wildfires in Uttarakhand, Almora, Nainital Worst Hit

Over-exploitation of water resources Nainital’s Ecology

Threats to Mussoorie’s ecology due to overexploitation, demographic changes

New tech to study critical water recharge zones of Nainital Lake