Cactus-like sillu has helped Garhwalis survive lean seasons It is an unlikely plant to tickle taste buds. It is covered with spines. People in Garhwal use its poisonous sap to kill and catch fish. When mixed with other herbs it is as good as a pesticide. But in drier, rocky parts of the Himalaya, where it grows abundantly, people have known that when the weather is rough and crops fail,
The many faces of Himalayan herb bhangjeera Traditional medicine practitioners of eastern Asia know about this spice. People of Garhwal in Uttarakhand have many uses for the leaves and seeds of this plant grown in the upper reaches of Himalaya. But gourmets are yet to discover it. The aroma of bhangjeera chutney and bhangjeera tea fills the air as one travels through the hilly
But where are the flowers? HIGH temperatures have caused spring flowers to bloom earlier than usual in Uttarakhand disrupting the annual festivities. This has dismayed children in the Garhwal district the most because each year when they wake up before dawn to collect wild flowers like Rhododendron arboreum (burans), Prunus cerasoides (painya) and Rainwerdtia indica (fyunli), they
Early blooms in Uttarakhand worry scientists THE Rhododendron flowers were in full bloom in Uttarakhand in December. Nothing unusual about that except the timing was wrong. Uttarakhand has a large diversity of rhododendron trees and shrubs that usually bloom between February and May. But forest patches in Chamba, Mussorie, Uttarkashi and Almora districts brightened with the pink and red
A Garhwali radish, small and round and pink, is just what the doctor ordered Many people are familiar with white radish. But it also comes in black, red, purple, rose and lavender. The round, pink variety is a traditional winter vegetable in the Garhwal region, where it is known as mula, meaning root. Before the popular white radish was the small round mula. There are references that radish
