He quit his comfortable job as a Reader in the Government P.G. College, and plunged himself whole-heartedly into research and development work for the village people of the Himalayas. He formed a voluntary organization entitled Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conversation Organization (HESCO), and concentrated on need-based science and technology developments, and their application for the mountain regions. He began this work on a small scale by taking up initiatives that had immediate application possibilities in the rural areas through the support of agencies such as the Department of Science and Technology, and the Department of Bio-technology.
His total task involved in promoting local economy through local means. His strong belief is utilizing local recourses can only bring sustained economic development in rural India as former is governed by community. Thus development of local resources, upgraded wisdom, and local markets have been his focal approach. These efforts were designed to bring about a decentralized economy, and have shown tremendous results.
About Five lakhs villagers from ten thousand villages in the nine mountain states of the Himalayas have direct and indirect benefits from his initiative. His major contribution has been to bring back neglected watermills of 5,000 villages with new version by upgrading the traditional system. Economic and social changes of the villages after mills revival have brought revolution in many states like J&K, HP and Uttarakhand
Water mill ElectrificationNew applications of mill for several local resource utility have given a new ray of hope to neglected water millers. He organized millers from state to National level to gear their voice. Internationally, water millers proposed to organize to advocate decentralized power generation for local economy.
He mobilized thousands of villages to tap their local resources such as agriculture, horticulture, and medicinal and fiber plants to generate income and support a paradigm for a thriving local economy. Now most of the rural development departments of the mountain states have followed this protocol, and decentralized economies are slowly taking hold and economic independence is setting the place in rural Himalaya.
Women preparing sweet balls as offeringAgriculture being a major resource, Dr. Joshi also promoted the same in the mountain villages, where traditional crops have been revamped. This approach is restoring the ecological importance of the indigenous crops, according to the Climate and Nutritional needs of the villages. His efforts to initiate value addition in local agri-produce has been fetching high return. He motivated the shrine-committees of Badrinath, Gangotri, and Vaishno Devi Temples, as well as some Muslim Shrines, to allow offerings which are made from the local crops and resources. This was to generate local employment in these economically-deprived regions from local produce. The annual turnover of these villages involved in offering for shrines is estimated to be Rs. Ten Lakh to Forty lakhs. There is a silent movement on offering as an employment spreading in all agro-climatic zones of the country. The ministry of Science and Technology has taken up this as a major programme now.
Another program popularly knows as TIP (Technology Initiative for Peace) was instituted by Dr. Joshi which enlisted the assistance of the Indian Army and security forces. This program has been instrumental in bringing revolution in the villages of the border areas. It brought Dr. Joshi’s watermill technology and electrified many villages throughout Jammu, Kashmir, and the LOC. In tandem with his program to maximize the use of the local resources in the regions of Kargil, Kupwara, Baramullah, Jammu, and Army Bioresource centre for Stress area Kashmir, Dr. Joshi introduced the brand name of “Kargil” for locally-produced products. A similar intervention was also carried out in the northeast Arunanchal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur state, and a local-brand of their products has been established. These efforts have brought employment in local communities, and have had the positive effect of diverting the local youth away from anti-social activities. The other forces like Border security forces, Indo Tibbetian Border Police, Social Security Board, and Central Reserve Police Force have also begun similar experiment in their respective border areas under the guidance of Dr. Joshi. This has become a popular initiative as it has brought peace in remote border areas where otherwise unrest prevails because of constant negligence of community.Treatment of catchments through botanical cum mechanical for recharging of springs Dr. Joshi’s recent intervention in recharging mountain springs has caught enormous attention of the mountain community and policy makers in these states. Using isotope-hydrology as a tool, with the help of Bhabha Atomic Research Center, he has successfully recharged seventeen springs which were turning dry experiment on another 120 springs of 3 states is under program. The results of this experiment are already affecting a major thrust of many government development agencies who are addressing the scarcity of water in rural mountain areas.
School children from rural development Another innovative and exciting programme introduced by Dr. Joshi involved school children and teachers from local renowned schools. He motivated them to serve villages for development using both local resources and technology. The basic idea behind this program was to inculcate in children an affinity towards rural villages and to create new opportunities for development for deprived villages. The positive benefits of this project thus far have resulted “adopt a village” concept being shared with 70 additional schools across the country.
WISE Shopping Complex He has also initiated WISE (Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment), a social platform for women to generate employment and marketing opportunities, as well as to address other economy-related issues. More than five thousand women from all over the mountains are members of WISE, which has strengthened the relationship between women, their community’s resources, and technology.
Dr. Joshi has also promoted a forest-fire prevention measure in mountain villages. The removal of forest litter which exaggerates spread of wild fires was locally utilized. This litter is used for composting and other energy purposes. The villagers remove the litter before onset of peak summer for above uses. Compartmental removal present fire incidence as well as does not harm forest growth.
Another important contribution of Dr. Joshi’s includes disaster-management through providing employment relief to the victims of natural disasters. This was rendered by promoting earthquake-resistant types of housing and as well immediate employment relief based on local resources. Thousand of villagers were benefited with it at the time of 1992 and 1999 Himalayan earthquake.
In 1979, Dr. Joshi addressed the menacing problem of soil erosion and landslides in the Himalayan Mountains with Biological methods. The simple botanical cum mechanical method has been applied to stabilize the slopes. More than hundred slides along the major hill roads were controlled by his initiative. These experiments became so successful that the Border Roads organization subsequently adopted the technology throughout the mountain region.
Dr. Joshi also promoted to schedule caste community. During their visit in Himalayas, an idea came up in his mind to develop a model village for schedule caste community through their local resources in three states Uttarakhand, Himanchal and J&K. About 10 numbers of villages all across Jammu Kashmir, Himanchal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are involved in the task.
Swiss training to Himalayas Folk Primary philosophy underlying Dr. Joshi’s approach to rural village development is the concept of a community-to-community knowledge transfer. He is committed to inspire a continuing “development chain” in which a village receiving the benefits of development will in turn pass on that knowledge to another village in need of assistance. This mode of technology-transfers is popular by name Shridan (community initiative to community) practice. It has popular acceptance in Indian mountain villages. This has recently been adopted internationally too. The Swiss community has initiated a programme called CIC (community initiative to community) from Alpine to Himalaya. The community of Engadin valley organized support for technology transfer to Swiss alpine to himalaya. Rural women from Indian mountain were trained by Swiss community on Bakery, Cheese, and Bee Keeping etc. Similar initiative is brewing in New Zealand where south alpine community is organizing training for Himalayan farmers on agriculture issues. The whole technology transfer program is organized, sponsored and imparted by communities. The trained community further share it with others.
He has undertaken Padyatra to raise the issues on community right and empowerment. Padyatras from Gangotri to Delhi, Uttarakhand to Himachal Pradesh and Manari to Maletha were conducted to raise water issues under Water Movement. Considering the agriculture as a mainstay and farmer most important individual of the nation, he recently organized cycle yatra from J&K to Uttarakhand and from Kanyakumari to Uttarakhand (5000 Km). His latest endeavor has been to demand a fix percentage of land under agriculture to ensure the food security. He has been working on one window service to the marginal farmers. This would include loan, seeds, plant protection services and market outlet. This has been established in Uttarakhand as a ‘KISAN BANK’ a paradigm for others to follow. This has largely reduced farm inputs and as well a dignity of farmers is secured, which latter feel is threatened.
Children’s News PaperDr. Joshi has also published a children’s newspaper entitled “Bachcho Ka Akhbar” to bring awareness to village-children about science and their local natural resources. This paper is distributed in 1500 villages of the mountain areas.
Positions
I. Member in Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education, Society.
II. Center Soil and Water Training Research Institute, member.
III. Expert member:- Indo Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology .
IV. Expert member : Biotechnology Promotion Committee Programme.
V. Expert in Department of Science and Technology.
VI. Fellow National Academy of Science.
VII. Member of Indian Society for Forester.
VIII. Fellow of Indian Botanical Society.
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