Litter And Spice: The Two Sides Of The New Rohtang Tunnel

The mesmerising valleys and fragile glacier-fed rivers--- Chander and Bagga- are getting increasingly polluted by the litter, plastic waste , empty bottles 바카라 웹사이트and other garbage left behind by the tourists flocking to the world라이브 바카라 longest tunnel --- Atal Rohtang Tunnel for Lahaul Spiti.

But바카라 웹사이트 there's some good news too.바카라 웹사이트

Nearly 300 hectares in Lahaul's Pattan Valley will바카라 웹사이트 soon be used to cultivate바카라 웹사이트 “heeng,”바카라 웹사이트 or Asafoetida. This expensive and aromatic spice is a must in Indian kitchens,바카라 웹사이트 with a distinct flavour which nothing else can replicate.바카라 웹사이트

A team of leading scientists from the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource, Palampur (IHBT),바카라 웹사이트 a CSIR centre in the Himalayan region,바카라 웹사이트 visited Lahaul recently and held talks with the farmers to convince them to begin heeng cultivation.바카라 웹사이트 A report said the first seedling of asafoetida was planted in Kwaring village of Lahaul valley on October 15.

“This will be first time India will be finding a highly fertile and climatically perfect place for taking-up the cultivation of Heeng . A detailed scientific 바카라 웹사이트research has already gone into various aspects of the project initially covering only 300 hectres, and later to be expandable upto 5000 hectres in rest of Himachal Pradesh like Kinnaur, ,and even parts of Uttrakhand, Ladakh ,바카라 웹사이트Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, “ says Dr Sanjay Kumar, 바카라 웹사이트Director at IHBT Palampur.

The cultivation will initially be done in Pattan valley, with바카라 웹사이트 seeds brought from Iran through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR), New Delhi, he told 바카라.바카라 웹사이트 India imports over a 1000 tonnes of raw heeng 바카라 웹사이트from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq,바카라 웹사이트 Iran and Uzbekistan every year, making it the world's largest importer of the pungent spice.바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트

“The Atal Rohtang tunnel will be a game changer for Lahaul and Spiti. But now because there is hardly any time left for the season, and winters setting in, the farmers will be able to undertake cultivation only in the next season,” said바카라 웹사이트Suman, the Panchayat Pradhan of Sissu –where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the rally on바카라 웹사이트October 3바카라 웹사이트after바카라 웹사이트 inaugurating the tunnel. " Modiji바카라 웹사이트 had mentioned the mentioned the possibility of growing lots of medicinal herbs and spices including heeng," she recalled.바카라 웹사이트

IHBT Palampur has already signed a MoU with the Himachal Pradesh government for taking up cultivation of heeng .

Earlier, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in his budget speech in바카라 웹사이트March 2020바카라 웹사이트had announced cultivation of heeng,바카라 웹사이트 saffron and other aromatic spices in the high altitude areas of Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Chamba districts under the Krishi Se Sampannta Yojana to boost the local economy. A few years ago, Dr Vikram Sharma , a Bilaspur-born바카라 웹사이트 farmer바카라 웹사이트who is also member of the Indian Coffee Board ,had taken the initiative to introduce cultivation of heeng in the state.바카라 웹사이트

"It's going to be a great opportunity for the Lahaul and Spiti farmers to take up real value addition to their farming as had been hinted by Prime Minister Modi. I will certainly work-out the plans soon," said 바카라 웹사이트Pankaj Rai, the newly-appointed Deputy Commissioner for Lahaul-Spiti.바카라 웹사이트