Rural homestays are becoming a valuable source of livelihoods and sustainable tourism in parts of the Himalayas. Here are some stories of such facilities.

In the Himalayas and various other parts of India, a new model for low-impact tourism is needed to protect the fragile ecosystems that provide youthful adventurers the wild and exotic experiences they seek, and homestays are a sustainable tourism option in such surroundings.

Can an adivasi community save the forests and wildlife they live amidst? According to the sentiments echoed by about 160 Soliga adivasis, the answer is a resounding yes. Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary is part of an ecologically critical landscape in the meeting point of the Western and Eastern Ghats, known for its plant and animal diversity, including elephant, tiger, and gaur. Soligas have resided in the area for several centuries.

Natwar Sarangi of Odisha is an extraordinary farmer, collecting and trying several hundred traditional varieties of paddy and redistributing them to willing farmers.

A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events

A Londoner describes her experience of the worldview of a community that lives in a remote part of Rajasthan without modern comforts, and what she learned from them. Such as that to bring about change all stakeholders have to see each other as equals, and that Trust between all stake-holders is essential, especially between those who have very opposing views.

Samrakshan’s Meghalaya field-base had undertaken community-based conservation programmes in the landscape for the last few years but our latest attempt was a community-based ecotourism programme with multiple goals. -

Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation on land considered inferior, that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices

A single man is showing what perseverance can do, in regenerating and protecting the forests of Bastar district in Chhattisgarh. The idea is spreading to neighbouring villages in Odisha, too.