Siloti Village(Nainital, Kumaon, Uttarakhand) - A Tourist Destination

LOCATION

Village Siloti is a revenue village comes under Gram Panchayat Siloti which lies in tehsil Nainital in Uttarakhand State of India at a distance of  38 Kms from District head quarter Nainital 8 km from block headquarter Bhimtal  and  about 298 Kms from the state capital Dehradun. Village Siloti lies at an elevation of 1300 meter above the sea level in the middle hills of Nainital district. Upper portion of the village is covered with lush green Deodar trees with its cool and pleasant environment. This beautiful village lies at slope with the geographical coordinates of Latitude 29.3220° N and Longitude 79.5835°E.  Weather of Siloti stays Normal and pleasant throughout the year. The maximum temperature during summer ranges from 25-30 degree Celsius. The months of winters begins from October and extend to April. Minimum temperature reaches to 10-15 degree Celsius and goes or below. During winter season, the surrounding hills of the village receive a particular amount of snowfall. The densely forested slope receives adequate rainfall generally commencing from mid-June and extending till mid-September. Adequate rainfall is also recorded in winter.

The forest adjacent to the village is basically a mixed forest with a certain proportion of pine, bushes and grasslands. At the higher elevation cedar species is commonly found in the reserve forest. The inhabitations of local people meet the need of fuel, fodder, small timber and thatch grass from this forest. 

The main wild animal of this area include the bear, dear, common leopard, etc. The rich and exotic avifauna of in and around village makes it a birdwatcher’s paradise. Its colorful avifauna comprises, inter alia, several species of thrushes, woodpeckers, barbets, flycatchers, swifts, tits serow, golden eagle, bearded vulture, eagle black eagle and the one mustn't forget the peculiar and ubiquitous crow. The village is located closed to the Naukuchiya tal Lake which is one of the largest and deepest among all the lakes exist in Greater Nainital area.

SOCIO ECONOMIC FEATURES

Siloti is a small village with total 90 families residing. The Siloti village has population of 369 of which 199 are males while 170 are females as per Population Census 2011. In Siloti village, population of children with age 0-6 is 48 which make up 14.12 % of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Siloti village is 1024 which is higher than Uttarakhand state average of 963. Child Sex Ratio for the Siloti as per census is 714, lower than Uttarakhand average of 890. Siloti Pandey village has higher literacy rate compared to Uttarakhand. In 2011, literacy rate of Siloti Pandey village was 87.67 % compared to 78.82 % of Uttarakhand. In Siloti Pandey Male literacy stands at 94.29 % while female literacy rate was 81.58 %. In Siloti village, currently there are different social groups such as Karnatak, Joshi, Tripathy, Pandey, Panday, Bisht are residing in the village. 

Agriculture combined with livestock, horticulture and to some extent tourism is main source of the economy of Mohna village. There are still 32 families who come below poverty line. The total agriculture land of the village is 13.93 hectare. 8.59 hect  agriculture land is under irrigation. As per the focus discussion with the village, more than 85% families have less than half hectare land. A large cultivable area in village is under marginal holdings, which too is fragmented and scattered. This has impeded the task of making agriculture a profitable occupation. However, the experience of Himachal Pradesh with a similar land holdings pattern shows that agriculture could be made remunerative through its focused development by providing incentives like inputs, extension, developing infrastructure, etc. Somehow the villagers have adopted Himachal pattern of cash crop farming and developed orchard and off season vegetable farming. Village Siloti is known for off season vegetable farming. Villagers are cultivating more and more cash crop to enhance their livelihood despite lack of irrigation facilities. The main agricultural crops grown in the village are paddy, manduwa, jhangora (both are small millets) and pulses in the kharif crop season, potato, tomato and vegetable (summer crops), and wheat in rabi crop (winter crops). The entire mentioned crops are generally grown in the high terraces where irrigation facilities are not available.

Mixed cropping is common in village which helps in maintaining the crop diversity and reduces the risk of environment uncertainty. Productivity of agriculture almost remained stagnant in the village over the past one decade except increase in the case of cash crops.

The area under commercial crops in village is increasing.  There has been a significant growth in the area under fruits and vegetables particularly under the potato and seasonal off seasonal vegetable.  As a result, both production and productivity of vegetables recorded an impressive increase in the village. This has become one of the additional sources of income for the villagers. Agriculture in village is closely interlinked with animal husbandry and forestry to form a production system.  Marginal and small farmers are heavily dependent on the livestock sector as it is not only a source of milk and draught power, but its by-products such as manure help in supplementing farm income. These animals, in turn largely depend on forests for their feed.

ATTRACTION FOR TOURIST IN AND AROUND THE VILLAGE

The key attractions for tourist in and around the village are following.

S.No	Attraction	Description
1	Naukuchiya Lake, Kamal lake	Naukuchiya Lake is located closed to the village. Naukuchiatal or ‘lake of nine corners’ is surrounded by hills covered in trees and shrubs offers a big attraction point for tourist. It is the deepest lake in the Nainital district with a depth of 40 m.  Visiting to this beautiful place also offers one with the tempting challenges like paragliding, fishing, rowing, paddling or yachting. Kamal tal is only lake in the area which nourishes Kamal flowers.
2	Cultural life of local community	The villages of Uttarakhand are culturally very rich. The peculiar traditional housing pattern, costumes, fair festival, food, folk music and dances, agriculture practices and animal husbandry practices can attract visitors across the world. Linking tourism activities with the calendar of local fair and festival would be a lifelong experience to visitors. This area of Nainital has known for its colorful custom, fair, festival, song, dances and music. To expose village life and culture, schedule can be made for students, corporate, culture lover etc. matching with local cultural activities. The traditional organic cuisine of the area is highly nutritious, simple to prepare and at the same time appealing to the palate. The main recipes are Ras, Bhang ki chatni, Singhal, Bhatt ki Curdkani, Shai, Badil, Thachwani etc.
3	Bhimtal Lake	Another major attraction for tourist is Bhimtal Lake, which has an island at its centre. Activities like boating, kayaking, Bird watching attracts the tourist to this destination. Bhimtal is just 29 km from Siloti. One can spend the day in Bhimtal and return to the Siloti for evening stay in the home stays of Siloti.
4	Sat tal	Sat tal is beautiful lake situated near to Siloti village around 30 km. it’s a beautiful lake with the activities of boating, kayaking and various other water sports. You can sit down near the lake and enjoy fresh food and the local fruits. The water in the lake is very clear and appears to be blue in color. Surrounded by the high mountains on the all side the lake gives a perfect site for the tourist to enjoy in peace the beauty of the lake. It is also the paradise for the birdwatchers as the forest offers the sight of various birds found rarely in this region and the migrated birds.
5	Kainchi Dham	Kainchi is a beautiful secluded mountain ashram located in the Kumaon Hills in Uttarakhand founded by great spiritual leader Shri Neeb Karoli Maharaj. The first temple was inaugurated in June 1964. It is approximately 38 km from village. Many hundreds of people visit the temples here every day, in season. IT is also a word that APPLE Founder Steve Jobs has suggested to the ‘Facebook’ founder Mark Zuckerberg also visited this famous shrine.
6	Paragliding	Various operators who are the experts in the activities of paragliding and other mountain adventure are available near to the Siloti village and Bhimtal Circuit. The beauty of this place is the high mountain followed by beautiful valleys which give a perfect avenue of all the mountain sports activities.
7	Himalayan Sangrahalaya	This is the must visit place of Bhimtal popularly called Lok Sanskriti Sangrahalaya, presenting valuable artifacts and a treasure of old photographs, This museum also displays various archaeological items and rock arts representing rich culture of Uttarakhand. Other things to be viewed here are ancient manuscripts, folk paintings, images of gods, goddesses, and wooden artifacts.
8	Butterfly Park	Near to Bhimtal lake this museum run by Mr. Peter become major tourist attraction where we found good collection of Butterfly and moth and other insect. It's actually a research centre and tourists who are interested in butterfly they must visit. The fee is Rs.150 per person.
9	Golu Devta Temple	One of the famous attractions in Ghorakhal is Golu Devta Temple, always in news for the unique rituals performed here. One such ritual is that devotees make petitions at the temple, using stamp papers, to seek desired decree in litigations. On accomplishment of their wish, the deity is shown gratitude by hanging bells or making animal sacrifice. People from all over the region consider Golu Devta, the presiding deity of the temple, to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva and ‘the God of Justice’.