In Bingwadi, a small village nestled within the Pauri district of Uttarakhand, the silence begins long before the houses are visible. “There are only empty houses and hanging locks to welcome you here,” says Pratap Singh, 85, a retired sub-inspector of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, who lives alone. Of his two brothers, one has settled in Pauri city, the other in Dehradun. His three daughters and one son all live outside the state. “There’s no one left,” he says quietly. “People come back only when there is a wedding or some ritual that must take place here.” Village head Manvendra Rawat says that out of 392 registered voters of the village, 125 live elsewhere. “Even the public works of MNREGA are incomplete. There is no one left to do it,” says Rawat.