The high-altitude Himalayas

The high-altitude belt of the Indian Himalayas is a harsh expanse of wasteland and craggy slopes ringed by snow-clad peaks. The communities that inhabit this extremely tough terrain reside in scattered small villages across the valleys and plateaus, cut off from the world due to climatic and infrastructural adversities. These hardy highlanders have learned to eke out a living from subsistence agriculture and pastoralism during the short, mild summers; the winters are bitter stretches when no productive activity is possible. Poverty levels are high, and deprivation is stark. Lack of irrigation makes cultivation of cash crops difficult, and the produce is sold raw in distant markets with very low returns for the farmers. The near-total dependence on natural resources for cultivation, fodder, timber, and fuelwood is also having a grievous impact on the fragile land and further impoverishing the indigenous communities. Crop productivity is declining, and the burden on women—the traditional non-timber forest product (NTFP) collectors—is steadily increasing. This poses severe problems with regard to their health and education. The altitude is also a barrier to resource flows into the area. The extent and quality of infrastructure and basic services such as communication, healthcare, and education—considered commonplace in the plains—is pathetically poor. The developmental status of these communities is therefore far below that of the rest of India.

Development needs, opportunities, and hurdles in the high altitudes

Sustainable development in the mountains requires a focus on 3 critical issues:

Occupational diversity and value added to local produce have been found to be significant catalysts for development of rural areas, bringing in revenues that in turn attract other constituents of development such as welfare services and infrastructure, while reducing pressure on natural resources. Rich in resources on which plains communities depend, high mountain regions have the potential to produce a variety of niche products for which latent markets exist. In addition, the burgeoning tourist market in these regions represents substantial consumption capacity for a range of goods and services.

Yet the disadvantages of mountain regions have meant a high drain of revenues and inability to realize potential advantages. These regions are characterized by a one-way extractive pattern: they provide water, timber and minerals to people downstream, but negligible benefits flow back in return. The solution lies in removing the bottlenecks that prevent mountain areas from benefiting from specific advantages associated with niche products and markets, and in developing eco-culturally appropriate solutions to address these problems.

A paucity of energy is among the most serious bottlenecks to development in the Himalayan highlands (Box 1). There are about 5000 non-electrified villages in the Himalayan region; moreover, an electrified village is not necessarily one in which all households have electricity, nor one in which electrically powered enterprises would be feasible. The quality of available power is very poor, and there are weeks of blackouts during the freezing winters. Biomass, with its severe environmental and health costs, is the major fuel, of which 60–80% is in the form of fuelwood. Women's health is damaged by exposure to wood smoke and the carrying of fuelwood loads on their heads across long distances. The ecology of the region is also severely affected, as the sparse vegetation cover is removed for household energy needs. Inadequate levels and forms of energy hinder education and make it impossible to process products and achieve added value through mechanization.

Human resource capacity in the Himalayas is severely stunted and is a further reason for the lack of development. The isolation suffered by highland communities has meant an increasing gulf in skills and technologies. Despite the immense advances made by the rest of the world, these communities remain trapped in practices that prevent them from producing and selling value-added products or new-age services, at best deriving small benefits from low-end tourism employment in the flourishing tourist markets in their regions.

Common energy facilities for mountain villages

Energy is neither explicitly recognized as a basic human need nor as a cause of poverty. Yet it is clear that efficient and uninterrupted supply of energy facilitates the forces of development, enables a better quality of life, and builds human capacity. Although efforts have been made to promote renewable energy (RE) sources in the Himalayan highlands, the low level of penetration stems from serious gaps in adaptation of RE technologies to high-altitude social and ecological conditions. The only RE infusion in the area has been of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, and has focused on household-level applications. This has left the poorer households that are typically unable to invest out in the cold. Larger, beyond-the-household energy needs for welfare facilities and enterprises are also left unaddressed.

The dispersed nature of habitation in the region necessitates decentralized energy generation (Box 2 and Figure 1) and distribution services. The lower capacity of the community, along with great homogeneity and cohesion, also calls for community rather than household-level energy units. Pico- to micro-scale power generating systems using renewable sources of wind, sun, and/or water available at the particular site may be installed in a village and cater to all village-specific energy needs. A green energy solution for remote, energy-deprived mountain villages, such Common Energy Facilities (CEFs) may be jointly invested in and managed by the village community. Unlike household RE appliances, a CEF can ensure power for the poorest households that would not otherwise be able to enjoy it, and address larger, community-level energy needs alongside household needs.

The path to sustainable development for highland communities (and the role of CEFs)

The CEF that has revolutionized life in Lossar

Powerless, cold, and dreary winters are a reality for remote high-altitude villages such as Lossar in Lahaul and Spiti District, one of the highest inhabited villages in the Indian Himalayas. Lossarpas spend their summers farming small plots of land, grazing their livestock on adjoining rangelands, and employed in back-breaking road labor in order to earn a small cash income. The village has a primary school and a health center, both of which are frequently inoperative. The road to Lossar closes every October and the village remains snowbound and isolated until June. Villagers rely on fuelwood to meet energy requirements for cooking and heating. Although the village is connected to a grid, there is no power for most of the winter and long stretches in summer. Among potential RE sources in the area, water lies frozen in winters and the sun and wind make their presence felt alternately. Pragya, an NGO working in the region, designed and installed a pico-scale (smaller than micro, with a maximum output of 5 kWh) Solar–Wind Hybrid System (Box 3 and Figure 1) for the village. This harnesses one RE source when the other is in short supply, ensuring uninterrupted power for select village facilities and some households as well.

Conclusions

The CEF ably demonstrates the potential of distributed power generation, not only in overcoming the energy bottleneck, but also in effecting social and economic development and ensuring ecosystem integrity. It can mean improvement of the quality of life in high Himalayan communities, as well as their empowerment with information and connectivity with the rest of the world. It can mean an improvement in the lot of mountain women, the backbone of Himalayan society. It can facilitate diversification into alternate livelihoods and supplementary incomes, which would in the long run help raise Himalayan communities out of the mire of deprivation, reducing the gulf between them and plains communities. Improvement of their educational and health status through provision of welfare facilities, as well as improvement of ecological conditions by reducing deforestation, would also boost the quality and productivity of both human and natural capital.