India: The spice of real life

First came a field, then a row of haystacks and, finally, a cluster of old stone houses. Having slowly emerged from a landscape of forest and meadows, the small village of Saatri felt like a living Constable painting. But this was northern India rather than eastern England. The crops which grew around the houses weren't barley, wheat or corn but pumpkins, squashes, guavas, lemons and walnuts. Harvested millet, lentils and chillis formed little spice-coloured hills on the ground. A group of women scything in a far-off field could just be made out by their bright-coloured clothes. But there was a blot on this otherwise idyllic rural scene. In the centre of the village the most ornately carved house was slowly crumbling. "It's empty", said a local boy, showing me around. "The owner has gone to Calcutta to find work and he isn't come back."

Migration is an increasingly familiar story in the Kumaon area of Uttaranchal and it's one of the region's biggest problems, contributing to the slow eradication of the indigenous language and culture. It was also the reason that I was there. After years of planning by an enthusiastic Anglo-Indian team (the former including travel industry veterans, Linda and Richard Hearn), a new walking holiday company, Village Ways, started operating last October. The aim is to stem the exodus; while visitors get a rejuvenating holiday, the locals are able to earn a sustainable living in their home villages. I was one of the first guests.

"Six months ago I could not believe that my life would be like this", said Hemu, my newly-trained guide, as we set off on a four-day taster walk. "There used to be 20 families in my village and now there are only seven. I thought I would have to go to Delhi to work but this has given me an alternative."

It wasn't hard to see why Hemu was happy with his new job. As well as providing employment, Village Ways has helped to retain local traditions by commissioning local stonemasons, carpenters and other craftsmen to build the guesthouses walkers will stay in (the rugs, curtains and bedspreads that decorate them were produced by local craftswomen). On a more personal level, the dirt and grind of Delhi couldn't compete with days spent tramping through the Himalayan foothills. The initial programme of Village Ways walks take visitors through five different villages - Risal, Saatri, Dalar, Gonap and Kathdhara - in and around Uttaranchal's Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary. A vast stretch of cedar and pine forest, laced by rivers and wildflower meadows and backed by jagged, snow-capped peaks, the landscape looks like a cross between Scotland and Switzerland. If it wasn't for the odd cactus sprouting between pines, or a flock of bright green parakeets suddenly flapping wildly overhead, I'd be expecting haggis and Toblerone for dinner.

There were other reminders that this was north India, though. As we strolled along quiet mountain paths, my bags carried ahead by a porter (more local employment), Hemu and his fellow guide, Baachi, pointed out leopard tracks and black-faced monkeys. "I have learnt so much from Mother Nature I feel I must share it," raved Baachi, who had come over from Corbett National Park to help train new guides like Hemu. Sticking to his word, over the next few days he passed me his binoculars to watch spotted lesser yellownape woodpeckers, brown-fronted woodpeckers, slaty-headed parakeets, verditer flycatchers, blue whistling thrushes, red-billed blue magpies, and spiders so vividly decorated that they looked as though they had been dressed by Julien Macdonald.

These towering green hills seemed almost completely empty of people. They weren't, of course. Every hour or so, there would be a waft of baked hay and suddenly a haystack with little legs would come trotting round a bend: a farmer's wife on her way home from meadows often several kilometres away.

But walking was only one part of the trip. Equally important were the overnight stays in villages. The guesthouses have been built by and are managed by locally-elected village tourism committees, with the help of grants and interest-free loans. From any profits made from the walking holidays, the people who have given land for the houses to be built get Rs50 (around 60p) per guest, of which at least Rs10 is compulsorily contributed to the local village development fund. Village Ways also gets Rs50 per guest in repayment of the interest-free loan and the rest is sent to the village communities to be distributed as income.

Though all the guesthouses have been built to roughly the same design - fitting in with the architectural heritage of the villages but allowing for standards expected by Western tourists - the influence of the different village tourism committees means that each one feels very different, as do the villages themselves. The guesthouse in tiny, Alpine-looking Gonap, for example, has been the work of pretty much just one man. Saatri, spread out along a small ridge, is almost wholly run by the village women. In larger Kathdhara, home to several ex-Indian Army officers, the men are definitely in charge. Then there's Dalar, Hemu's home village, where everyone on the village tourism committee is under 30.

None of the guesthouses is luxurious in the traditional sense (if you can't cope without a travel iron and a TV, this isn't for you) but they have everything you need after a day's walking - and all offer the real luxury of being cared for. So there are proper beds, with mattresses and pillows, hot showers and lighting thanks to solar power, and tea * *brought to you in bed in the morning. All also provide home-cooked food, making the most of vegetarian Kumaoni recipes and local ingredients, but tailoring them to Western tastes to just the right degree. Breakfast omelettes are cooked with a little onion, garlic and chilli. Dhal, stuffed vegetables and grilled paneer have a kick but aren't going to scorch. Pua - little cakes made with banana and semolina - cater for those who like puddings. There's also fresh milk and yoghurt from the villagers' buffalos.

It may be a model of responsible tourism, but setting up the project hasn't been easy. The plan was originally to renovate disused village houses, like the one at Saatri, but that idea had to be abandoned when negotiations with landowners became difficult (there was also the problem that villagers tend to keep animals on the ground floor and live above them, and the cattle-friendly ceiling heights were often too low). There have also been cultural challenges to overcome for a company strong on equality. In some villages the men haven't wanted their wives to be seen working at the guesthouses. At others, people complained when they saw a lower-caste boy cleaning.

Then there is the fact that most of the villages involved have at least one field of marijuana (the locals mash up the seeds to make a delicious chutney, chopped up with pomegranate and mint), an entity that can completely change the character of a village if tourists start visiting only to smoke ganja. "Tourism can be a bad thing," said Himanshu Pande, the softly spoken owner of Khali Estate, a mountain hotel from where the Village Ways walks start, and the person who came up with the original idea for the project. "That's the basis we're starting from. Some people have said that we'll spoil the villages, but we say development is going to happen anyway. Let's try and do it in a good way".

His cousin, Dinesh Pande, a community development worker, has also worked hard at encouraging the villagers to get involved, and to supporting them as the project has developed. "We wanted this to be commercially viable in the long term", he explained. "We didn't want to leave villagers with aims that couldn't be fulfilled. Village Ways comes from the heart, not the head. It's not about one person being in it for themselves but about creating opportunities for everyone".

I tested the ethos thoroughly. When I came down with a cold at Khali, Himanshu's wife, Manisha, sent me to bed with a glass of hot milk pepped up with turmeric. When Himanshu walked with me to the start of the trail, he insisted on going ahead to sweep any slippery pine needles away from the path.

And on arrival at Saatri on that first evening, my bedroom had been strung up with metres of marigold chains that someone had spent hours weaving together to welcome me. I hadn't felt so pampered for years.

TRAVELLER'S GUIDE

GETTING THERE

The writer flew from Edinburgh to Delhi, via Frankfurt, on Lufthansa, booked through Southall Travel (0870 010 9003; www.southalltravel.co.uk).

Delhi is also served direct from Heathrow by British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com), Virgin Atlantic (08705 747 747; www.virgin-atlantic.com), Jet Airways (020-8970 1500; www.jetairways.com) and Air India (020- 8560 9996; www.airindia.com).

STAYING THERE

Village Ways offers nine-night holidays from £597 per person, including train and car transfers from Delhi and all food, accommodation and guiding. International flights are not included. The company is also running a special 12-night culinary walking trip this May. Prices for this start from £678 per person on the same basis as the ordinary walking holidays. Book through Traveltime: 0845 034 3399; www.villageways.com.

RED TAPE

UK passport-holders require a visa from India's High Commission (0906 844 4544, calls 60p per minute; www.hcilondon.net).

MORE INFORMATION

India Tourism: 020-7437 3677; www.incredible india.org