The population of Mundaghat village in Himachal Pradesh has halved within a decade. In 2010 there were nearly 500 people living in the village. Now there are 250, according to Sita Ram, a retired water board employee. The cause? Water shortages due to springs dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the state in northern India, people have started migrating from villages towards cities. Even older people do not want their children to stay. Gopi Devi, a resident of Bhalech village in Shimla district, told The Third Pole<\/a> she has sent her grandchildren for higher education to Delhi and wants them to settle there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Devi says that agriculture, which is her family\u2019s main source of income, is becoming harder due to springs drying up and the resultant unavailability of water. \u201cForget water for agriculture, we have to bring drinking water by walking 5-7 kilometres sometimes. All our springs have dried up. Decrease in rainfall and snowfall has led to water scarcity. There is no future for our children here,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly 90% of people<\/a> in Himachal Pradesh live in villages and rely on agriculture. According to a survey<\/a> by the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, 95% of farmers in Kullu district reported not having enough water to irrigate their crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manshi Asher, co-founder of Himdhara, a Himachal Pradesh-\u200bbased environmental research and action collective, said: \u201cSprings are one of the major sources of water in mountainous regions. The people, especially in rural areas, rely on these traditional water sources for drinking and irrigation. But now, more than 70% of springs are dead and others have become seasonal, which has resulted in an acute water shortage in Himachal villages.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to NITI Aayog<\/a>, an Indian government thinktank, there is increasing evidence that springs are drying up or their discharge is reducing throughout the Indian Himalayan region. It is estimated that half of the springs in the Indian Himalayas have dried up. A directory<\/a> of water resources claims that there are nearly 10,512 traditional water sources in Himachal villages. But the Himachal Pradesh Council for Science, Technology and Environment found only 30.41% of water sources are recharging properly, while 69.59% of sources are \u201cnearly going to dry in near future\u201d, added the directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSprings dying, other water sources disappearing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n