One Night in Kuthera – A Village with No Electricity, Submerged in the Pong Dam

This is 2012. Our nation has [supposedly] become a superpower. On the contrary, there still are certain villages where we have no electricity. I had this notion that Himachal Pradesh is a fully electrified state until I visited a small village situated [literally] in the middle of the great Maharana Pratap Sagar.

The reservoir facilitates generation of 360 MW of electricity, which lights hundreds of houses in Punjab yet it fails to provide electricity to a small village of 23 houses.

Why it fails is a long and a forgotten story!

Let this video stream while you read. Click and Watch Later.

Not so long ago people used to live in the catchment area but for the sake of development and electricity they were asked to vaccate the land. The government compensated for their loss by paying them huge sums of money and providing an alternate land area to build their new houses as well.

Some got lucky, they built their new homes in the vicinity. Some were allocated land in Rajasthan.

Some were asked to live in a jungle, they decided to stay back and live without electricity.

I knew only one thing that there is a village with no electricity and no transportation medium, I did not even know the name of the village.

Luckily, I met a fellow who was a resident of the same village.

Kuthera is not a small village, 23 families live there, with no electricity and water supply. They travel by boats, have no cable connections, they watch DD National with the help of tractor batteries, which last for 50 hours under ideal conditions.

Every child above five years of age goes to school, girls included. Almost every one above ten years of age knows oaring, some brave kids start early. During the rainy season, water almost reaches inside their houses and even in 100 feet deep water, kids go to the school.

My father used to tell me stories how they would walk 5 kilometers and sometimes swim in the river to reach school. My dad was born in 1946, this is 2012 and we are still hearing similar stories with different characters.

I was not sure if they would allow me to stay one night with them but luckily they themselves offered me to stay for a night and experience their kind of life.

Hesitantly, I asked why have they decided to stay back even when the government has given them land. The answer did not surprise me much. They were asked to relocate to Rajasthan, even worse they were given a steep land with a gradient of 50+ degrees.

It was not possible to shift to Rajasthan all of a sudden and it was suicidal to live in that steep area in the middle of the forest. The whole village decided to stay back, commute by boats, live in the middle of the ocean, and learned to live without electricity.

They even spoke to their MLAs and ministers but that didn’t help them much. Once in every five years politicians visit them. However, the government has done one good thing by providing them fishing licenses.

Mostly men are fishermen, some are electricians, and plumbers.

One of my good friends visited this island because he was planning to build a hotel there. These islands can become the face of  Himachal Tourism, if only they put sane men in charge and not some dumbfuck stupids who start and end every conversation with a big no. 

Which is mostly the case with Indian babus.

DD National is still cherished in this village. Can you see the antenna?

A Regular Evening in the Kuthera Village, Lanterns are the Lifeline. 

I had a talk with the kids. Most of them were unable to understand why they had not seen electricity till date. I was unable to answer their questions. 

There is a temple in the village that belongs to “महुए दा पीर बाबा ” and the baba is onsidered as the founder of this island who brought life to once lonely island.

Not too far from the island, temples built by the Pandavas can be seen. They remain submerged in the water for 6-8 months and in summers they fcome out of the water.

Locally, those temples are known as “बाथुए दी लड़ी”.

Pong Dam is a massive water-body, a man made ocean spread over an area of  12,560 square meters. The Tourism, Fisheries, and Wildlife Departments take care of the tourists, aquatic life, and migratory birds.

They have even put up a water sports park in Dhameta. You will see boards asking you to enjoy the beauty of the reservoir, however they don’t mention how to do that.

You need permissions and approvals to enjoy boating in the reservoir and getting permissions from government officials is not easy. Either they have slow processors installed in their minds or they simply like to complicate things for a tourist.

Anyhow, the best way to enjoy boating is either to go to Dhameta Village or to Nagrota Suriyan. Dhameta lies on the State Highway-27, whereas Nagrota Suiryan lies on the State Highway-22, use wiki for directions.

The road runs along the water-body throughout its length on both sides, so you can park your vehicle on the roadside and go fishing with a local boatman, you will find plenty of them in the region. You don’t need any permission for that and you don’t even need to pay a hefty amount.

Boatmen don’t complicate things, they keep things simple.

Soon these temples (बाथुए दी लड़ी) will come out of the water

 One of the best sunrise I have seen in my life so far, I wish I was a better photographer

Someday, I will go back there again.

Laters!