High altitude dams cause low horticulture yield

Dams are robbing Kinnaur of its big cash crop—apples,chilgoza etc..

Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh)

Chilgoza, another victim

Hydel projects are also hurting the production of chilgoza, a rare dry fruit. Chilgoza trees regenerate naturally. In India they grow only in Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh). Hundreds of chilgoza trees have been felled to make way for the approach road for Tidong dam, say residents of Rispa village in Nichar. Rispa is a prosperous village with 80 families, each holding 5.6 ha on average. They depend on chilgoza apart from a little farming. “Our ancestors lived off chilgoza trees as they last hundreds of years,” said Vinod Kumari, who owns 60 chilgoza trees. “I have lost most of my trees to illegal felling.”

While laying the road the builders, Hyderabad-based Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, damaged many more trees than 1,261 allowed in the forest clearance, noted an inspection report by the district administration. Residents of six villages in Tinala forest say they stand to lose 80 per cent of their chilgoza trees to blasting and debris dumping. “Tunnel ing for the dam will start soon. We will be left with hardly any trees,” Vinod Kumari of Rispa, said. “When we have good plantations, why does the government want us to take up daily-wages job?”

Pine nut(Chilgoza)

Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus Pinus). About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of great value as a human food.

       Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) Energy 3,657 kJ (874 kcal) Carbohydrates 13.1 g - Starch 1.4 g - Sugars 3.6 g - Dietary fiber 3.7 g Fat 68.4 g - saturated 4.9 g - monounsaturated 18.7 g - polyunsaturated 34.1 g Protein 13.7 g Water 2.3 g Vitamin A equiv. 1 μg (0%) - beta-carotene 17 μg (0%) Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.4 mg (35%) Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.2 mg (17%) Niacin (vit. B3) 4.4 mg (29%) Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.3 mg (6%) Vitamin B6 0.1 mg (8%) Folate (vit. B9) 34 μg (9%) Choline 55.8 mg (11%) Vitamin C 0.8 mg (1%) Vitamin E 9.3 mg (62%) Vitamin K 53.9 μg (51%) Calcium 16 mg (2%) Iron 5.5 mg (42%) Magnesium 251 mg (71%) Manganese 8.8 mg (419%) Phosphorus 575 mg (82%) Potassium 597 mg (13%) Zinc 6.4 mg (67%)  

Pollination and seed development

The pinyon pine nut (seed) species will take 18 months to complete its maturity; however, to reach full maturity, the environmental conditions must be favorable for the tree and its cone.

Development begins in early spring with pollination. A tiny cone, about the size of a small marble, will form from mid-spring to the end of summer; the premature cone will then become and remain dormant (with a cessation of growth) until the following spring. The cone will then commence growth until it reaches maturity near the end of summer.^[6] The mature pinyon pine cone is ready to harvest ten days before the green cone begins to open. A cone is harvested by placing it in a burlap bag and exposing it to a heat source such as the sun to begin the drying process. It takes about 20 days until the cone fully opens. Once it is fully open and dry, the seed can be easily extracted in various ways. The most common and practical extracting method used is the repeated striking of the burlap bag containing the cone(s) against a rough surface to cause the cone(s) to shatter, leaving just the job of separating by hand the seed from the residue within the bag.

Another option for harvesting is to wait until the cone opens on the tree (as it naturally will) and harvest the cone from the pinyon pine, followed by the extracting process mentioned above. Fallen seed can also be gathered beneath the trees.