The wonderberry that saved many areas | Fusion - WeRIndia

In the high altitude, cold deserts of Himachal Pradesh, the economy used to be very hard. People found it very hard to make money.

However, after they found a plant called seabuckthron, their economy has changed forever.

The cultivation of this wonderberry is now core for the development of the region.

The seabuckthorn berry is one of the most resilient plants ever.

It can tolerate extreme temperatures from -43C to +40C. It is also extremely nutritious and is used for traditional medicine.

The wonderberry is very resilient and can stay strong on the shrubs even in winter times.

Even in subzero temperatures, the berries give good harvest.

The berries are being used by the locals of the regions for centuries and are still so.

They are sold in many different ways. The dried berry peels are shredded into a tsirku tea.

The oil made from them is also used for various skin benefits.

 

Back In 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) started a national initiative to improve seabuckthorn cultivation in the high-altitude, cold desert areas.

The aim of the project is to improve these ecosystems. The project used Territorial Army and women’s self-help to create community livelihoods and also save the fragile high-altitude ecosystems. They were given training in the cultivation of the berries in several ways. They learned about pulping, product design and packaging etc. The youth and farmers were the main target of the project.

Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DRDO) also found methods to make beverage from the highly acidic fruit. The juice of the seabuckthorn berry juice doesn’t freeze in the sub-zero temperatures.

 

So the juice is helpful in such situations. Using such technology, a local community livelihood was created. In this way, various techniques have saved many fragile communities.

Image Reference: Thebetterindia