By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Jhupa Devi lived in a village in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand which was once bustling.
But on Wednesday when Devi died at the age of 100, there were not enough young men in the remote Tarigaon village near Indo-Nepal border to shoulder her bier. Reason: the migration has taken a heavy toll with most of the young men migrating to other parts of the country in search of livelihood.
Ramesh Chand (65), the son of Devi, took help from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) manning the Indo-Nepal border in Pithoragarh.
A group of SSB Jawans came to the village for performing the last rites the next day, Thursday, on the banks of Kali River.
“I am really thankful to SSB people for giving us valuable support which we desperately needed,” said Chand.
Chand said 25 families have deserted their houses in the village in the past 25 years. “We hardly see any young men in our village,” said Chand.
According to a rough estimate, there are over 1500 villages in Uttarakhand which have become almost deserted or locally known as “Bhootia” (ghost).
Sharing a picture of a locked house in Pithoragarh, Lokesh Ohri, a social activist, recently said on FB “the problem is particularly severe in the border districts.” “Twenty-five years on (after the formation of Uttarakhand), are we thinking of doing something about this,?” he asked.