User:SHWETANSHU BHATT/sandbox

"Of nearly 16,500 villages in Uttarakhand, as many as 734, mostly in the hilly areas, are totally depopulated. Such ghost villages with their houses lying in ruins and fields overgrown with vegetation abound in Pauri district where 186 out of 298 villages are totally depopulated. Pauri is the worst hit by migration followed by Almora district where a study by a commission team is already underway.Wherever there is lack of development in the country or anywhere in the world, migration is a reality but total depopulation of villages is a rare phenomenon which seems Uttarakhand specific."

                                                 -vice president of Uttarakhand Rural Development  
                                                    and Migration Commission S S Negi told PTI

It is well known that Pauri and Almora are the districts where education was most widespread and also developmental works reached the earliest in the hills of Uttarakhand.