Good evening. In Uttarakhand, a forested northern state backing on to the Himalayas, responsible travel company Village Ways has spent the past two decades helping locals to protect the environment, creating income opportunities for vulnerable villages where there are few other options for earning a living. Guide Hem invites writer Lorna Parkes to his home for some spicy chai showing off his new homestay, funded by his work as a guide in the Binsar wildlife sanctuary. During her three-day mini itinerary, Lorna discovers that the sanctuary, created in 1988 to repair the damage caused by years of logging, has oak trees known as “green gold” because of their role in the forest ecosystem and more than 200 species of birds, including several types of eagles, parakeets, woodpeckers, forktails and the giant Himalayan vulture. But, most importantly, at its heart she finds that life inside the reserve for its human inhabitants is a “tricky balancing act”, with international tourism in India yet to pick up again after Covid. “Twenty years ago, Dalar was a bigger village with 20 families; now there are just six families left,” says Hem. When asked what can be done, Hem replies without hesitation: “Tourism is our only option.”