This ghost village in Uttarakhand is more colourful than the most vivid imagination

Uttarakhand is one of the most abundant states in India when it comes to its natural resources. Yet, it is laden with ghost villages in its upper reaches; the Himalayan land has been seeing mass immigration, its natives leaving for the lower reaches of the country in search of opportunities including work and better financial prospects of course. A lack of employment opportunities has led to at least a thousand state villages desolate, sans any inhabitants.

Saur in Uttarakhand’s Garhwal was one such village, living in obscurity till it became a part of the Wise Wall Project by Project FUEL. While the village has only 12 families living in the entire village, colourful photos from the village have put it back on the tourists’ radar. The project vies to learn and document through the lives of others, and picked Saur for its first project.
The project was led by Poornima Sukumar, a renowned wall muralist. A closer look at the wall murals in Saur reveals hints of influences from the Garhwal thought of painting, with traces of Mughal patterns as well. Dig deeper, and you will be amazed to know a new font has been used in the art here. Apparently, typography artist Niteesh Yadav worked with the 12 families here, inoculating their handwriting to develop this new font.

The walls at Saur portray a number of scenes from everyday life here, also borrowing heavily from the art and culture of the village and the surrounding region. A number of murals here depict traditional dance forms, music, religion and other facets of the life in Saur. All the murals here are hand-painted and have turned the once dilapidated-looking village to a fascinating palette of colours.
Saur also marked the beginning of The Wise Wall Project, followed by Khati, a village in Kumaon. The project opened the village life to tourists, luring people in for conversations, thought exchange and dialogues. It might, perhaps, signal the start of reversing the trend of ghost villages in the state.