A small wood-framed window in a slanted-roofed cottage. Cerulean skies cradle fluffy nebulous clouds, behind which the sun peeps out to watch the pine needles glisten in its warm glow. Tall grass, small shrubs, tiny wildflowers, mighty Himalayas. Sounds mesmeric? Not to the residents of Semla village in Uttarakhand. The ‘ghost village’ and its total population of seven persons comprise the subject of filmmaker Srishti Lakhera’s documentary Ek Tha Gaon (Once Upon a Village) which was hailed as the Best Non-Feature Film in the recently-announced National Film Awards 2023.  

Semla, located in Tehri district, is one of the over 1,000 villages in the state that have turned into ghost villages. Crumbling houses that are becoming one with the surrounding foliage are all that is left as proof that the village was once a lively hub of 50 households. For Lakhera, who returned to her ancestral village from her urban life to make her debut feature documentary, it was not just her but also the truth hitting home. 

“Uttarakhand has a huge migration problem. A lot of villages are going empty, with families moving to cities,” said Lakhera, in town to collect the National Film Award from President Droupadi Murmu on October 17. 

With most men moving out for education and employment, it’s largely women who are left behind in these villages. Ek Tha Gaon too narrates the stories of two such women. Leela Devi is an 80-year-old widow who doesn’t wish to leave her home despite her age and loneliness. Sandhya, fondly called Golu, is the only young person left in Semla. The 19-year-old can’t wait to get out of the village but doesn’t have the means. She spends her time roaming around the abandoned houses in her neighbourhood. The haunting realities presented a jigsaw of conflicting aspirations, despair and dreariness – with several pieces missing. 

“Leela Devi lived all alone in a 100-year-old house. She was magical to me. I had not heard about her from my family,” said Lakhera, talking about how Leela Devi was in some ways living in the past, heartbroken with the situation she was in. She was 16 when she got married and came to Semla. “Since then all she knew was this village, her fields and how she nurtured them. It was her identity that she didn’t want to lose by moving to live with her daughter in Dehradun.”

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Golu, on the other hand, wondered what to do with her life, having limited access to education or employment since her parents weren’t financially well-off. Also, Semla, a village with barely any facilities, is hardly the place to offer opportunities to anyone. During the filming of Ek Tha Gaon, which took five years after Lakhera began shooting in 2016, Semla was still being connected to other nearby villages through a tarmacked road. The closest primary health centre (PHC) and high school are in a neighbouring village called Nyuli, while the nearest college is at Srinagar in Garhwal. 

“I have visited the PHC many times, but I saw a doctor there only once,” said Lakhera. “Even the road would hardly make a difference because nobody has a transport of their own. Public transport is very bad – there is one jeep that leaves in the morning for the town and it makes the return journey in the evening.”

With such a setting, Lakhera isn’t surprised that villages like Semla have been abandoned by residents. 

And while the talk of ‘reverse migration’ to these ghost villages may be gaining an echo, it’s easier said than done, she added. 

“Mixing farming and tourism may be a way forward,” she said. “Or giving education and internet facilities to facilitate entrepreneurship among youth and women, who can convert farm produce into food products like jams and pickles. And also market the native forest produce.” 

One such wild fungus is the subject of her next movie, which will again be based in rural settings. Lakhera is now conducting field research on keeda jadi (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), which is found in the Himalayas. Commonly called the caterpillar fungus, it is sold at prices reaching as much as Rs 20 lakh a kg due to its perceived medicinal value. 

“Keeda jadi has become a cash crop for a lot of people in the Dharchula region of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand,” Lakhera said. “When the snow melts, they leave everything for 2-3 months in a year and go into the higher mountains to look for and collect the fungus.” 

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Lakhera, 37, grew up in Rishikesh. She made Ek Tha Gaon on a shoestring budget, resorting to a crowd-funding campaign for the post-shooting work. 

“We still haven’t recovered any money,” she said. 

During her decade-long experience in filmmaking, Lakhera has worked with several civil society organisations in Indian villages. But the treasure trove of stories hidden in the folds of the Himalayas is what she wants to explore as a filmmaker now. She is sure that’s where her heart — and her camera – belong. 

The lead image at the top shows Leela Devi at her house in Semla village of Uttarakhand (Photo courtesy Srishti Lakhera)

Pallavi Srivastava is Associate Director, Content, at Village Square.