UTTARAKHAND: Bejewelled in the undisturbed vistas of the charming Garhwal Himalayas, lies Pauri. The town and its surroundings are enclosed by thick woodlands and snow-clad hills that appear like a silver diadem.
Undeniably, they attract thousands of tourists across the world every year. But since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000, Pauri Garwal district, according to locals, has been largely ignored by authorities.
However, there is a concrete sense of change, quite literally, for little more than one year now.
Through new and community-centric development models, district magistrate of Pauri Garwal Dhiraj Singh Garbyal has helped transform not only the perception, but also provided the residents with a future to look forward to — an economic model of homestay, known locally as ‘Basa’, to bolster the district’s tourism industry.
Basa cottages inspire locals to open up their houses as homestays, particularly in Pauri. The initiative helped revitalise the local economy.
A unique concept
Basa, which means night stay in Garwali, is designed with heavy stone-filled gabion retaining walls at the bottom and a light wooden structure on top covered with wattle and daub panels as infill material. Located at an altitude of 1,700 metres, the Basa tourism centre in Khirsu, about 11 km from Pauri, was designed to respond to the cold temperate climate.
Interestingly, the project was originally designed for entry in an earthquake-resilient house competition. But later, it was converted into a homestay to promote tourism and stimulate the village economy.
A 2001-batch PSO, who was promoted as an IAS officer in 2017 and posted as the DM of Pauri Garwal 2018, Garbyal said Basa is a tourism-based economy model in which the government prepares a homestay for guests instead of giving subsidy or loans for hotel-style living.
It is operating based on collective participation. Basa has been prepared under the scheme of eco-tourism and assigned to a women self-help group (SHG).
The group has been trained in the functioning of a homestay and in cooking local cuisines.
Garbyal also transformed the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam, the body which provides guest houses to tourists and manages the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
He made innovative experiments and designed homestays in Vyas and Darma valley along the same lines of Basa. “As a managing director of the Nigam, I had introduced local pahadi cuisines such as bhatt ki churkani, gahad ki daal, aloo ke gutke, jhingurey ki kheer along with special local tea named marjya, which were served to the pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra during their stay at our guest houses,” the DM says.
He also conducted training for 500 families from Dugtu, Dantu, Baling, Nagling, Kuti and Nabi villages in Dharchula area on hospitality to host the pilgrims. These homestays are also slowly reporting success.
From no hotels in these villages till recently to earning Rs 2,000 per booking by each of these families on hosting the pilgrims in their homes, the concept is turning out to be a way of living for them.
“After being trained about various aspects of hospitality, it has become easier for us to provide our guests with better services. It has immensely helped us improve our livelihoods,” said Harish Singh Dharamshaktu, a villager of Dugtu. Impressed by the success, the state government has launched an initiative to provide subsidies and start Basa-2.
The DM says a holistic homestay development model like Basa will not only increase tourism, but also activities such as farming, horticulture, and animal husbandry would be promoted.