Appropriate Technology India Atindia

Appropriate Technology India (AT India), is a premier organization working in the Central Himalayan Region (Uttarakhand), which had ‘Environment and Livelihoods, of the People of Himalayas’ as its core concern. AT India through its activities, such as capacity building in production activities, and services that lead to marketing of various products is present in 998 villages of Rudraprayag and other districts, easily one of the remotest villages of the Central Himalayan Region. It works with ~22,500 households, largely through women. The organization has developed specialization in Cerana bee keeping (Apis cerana, a native honey bee) and honey marketing, tasar silk production through oaks, weaving and marketing of tasar silk clothes, dairy activities, and production of spices like turmeric, large cardamom, garlic, coriander, chilly etc. While doing so, it takes all possible measures to protect and conserve natural biodiversity. It focuses on Cerana bee keeping, because this bee forages on close to 70 flowering species, hence yields a honey of high quality from organic landscapes. In the process, it has developed a kind of women-based citizen science. The cerana bee pollinates about 70 species so the region is benefitted by a precious ecosystem services. Then, AT India take care of maintaining biodiversity which particularly serves bees. Through its various activities, AT India contributes to women-based enterprises, and aims at restricting stress-outmigration, and resultant depopulation of mountain areas. Its long-term goal is to maintain the integrity of mountain landscapes which include village societies, biodiversity conservation, and enterprise development through women.