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**Summary:**

Despite the decline following the 1962 India-China border closure, some former residents of Himalayan villages in Uttarakhand, India, are returning during the summer months. Villages like Martoli, once thriving trade hubs with Tibet, now lie largely abandoned. However, a few individuals, driven by love for the land and agricultural opportunities, are returning to cultivate crops and even cater to the occasional trekker. New roads are making summer return trips to some of the other nearby villages more accessible.

**News Article:**

**Himalayan Villagers Return to Abandoned Homes, Rekindling Fading Traditions**

*Martoli, Uttarakhand, India* – Decades after a border closure decimated their way of life, former residents of remote Himalayan villages in Uttarakhand are making summer pilgrimages back to their ancestral homes. The 1962 India-China border conflict effectively shut down trade with Tibet, leading to the abandonment of once-bustling villages like Martoli in the Johar Valley. Dilapidated stone structures now stand as silent reminders of a prosperous past when sugar, spices, and cloth were exchanged for Tibetan salt and wool.

However, the lure of the mountains and fertile land proves strong. Kishan Singh, 77, is among a handful who return to Martoli each summer. “I enjoy being in the mountains, and the land here is very fertile,” he explains, spending six months cultivating buckwheat, strawberries, and black cumin before transporting his harvest back to his winter home in the plains.

While Martoli now sees only a few seasonal inhabitants, other villages in the region, like Laspa, Ghanghar and Rilkot, are witnessing a slight resurgence, thanks to the construction of new roads that reduce the arduous journey. A new guesthouse in Martoli hints at the possibility of a tourism-driven revival as trekkers pass through on their way to the Nanda Devi Base Camp. The future remains uncertain, but for those who return each summer, the connection to their ancestral land remains a powerful force.

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