The various reasons for this situation include:

♤ water shortage and degradation of grazing land due to furious dam-building activity

♤ Limited economic avenues, educational and skill development opportunities.

♤ Agriculture turning an unprofitable venture due to lack of irrigation infrastructure. For example in the Uttarakhand’s 11 mountain districts, a mere 18 percent of land remains irrigated, compared to over 95 percent in the plain districts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.

♤ Poor connectivity which makes living hard in these remote regions. According to a 2011 Planning commission report 5,000 villages (almost 58 percent of villages) in Uttarakhand remain cut off from proper roads

♤ Most highland farmers cannot compete with the high production volume of lowlands and are frequently paid only a fraction of the value of their produce due to long supply chains that increase transportation and other costs.

♤ Unplanned and unchecked tourism which adds to the pressure on existing limited mountain resources like water and biodiversity.

♤ Rising aspirations of young generation.