10 Kachahri Road, Dehradun
The identity of the hills. The voice of Uttarakhand.
From the Garhwal and Kumaon foothills to the high Himalaya — the party that led the demand for statehood continues to stand with the people on migration, farming, forest rights and local dignity.
Party President
Key Issues
The real challenges facing the hill state
From ridge to valley — the issues UKD has raised consistently, from remote
villages to the state capital.
Migration & ghost villages
Thousands of hill villages across Garhwal and Kumaon now stand empty. Reversing this migration and reviving village life is UKD’s founding priority.
Hill agriculture
Local employment
Forest & land rights
Protecting Van Panchayat rights and the traditional forest access of hill communities against outside encroachment.
Himalayan development risk
Unplanned construction in ecologically fragile zones — from char dham road-widening to hydropower projects — needs scientific oversight, not just speed.
Hill agriculture
Terraced hill farming and horticulture — apples, citrus, millets — need real market access and protection from wildlife damage, not just subsidy announcements.
Remembering the cost of statehood
The sacrifices behind Uttarakhand
Statehood was not granted — it was won, at real human cost, by the people of the hills.
The demand for a separate hill state, first raised as early as 1897, took the shape of a mass movement in 1994. UKD gave that movement its political voice and organisation. What followed was one of the most difficult years in the state’s modern history — and it is important this is remembered honestly, not just marked with a date on a calendar.
1 September 1994 — Khatima
The Khatima firing
Thousands of hill villages across Garhwal and Kumaon now stand empty. Reversing this migration and reviving village life is UKD’s founding priority.
2 September 1994 — Mussoorie
The Mussoorie firing
A day later, police fired on protestors in Mussoorie. Together with Khatima, this galvanised hill communities across both Garhwal and Kumaon into united protest.
2 October 1994 — Rampur Tiraha, Muzaffarnagar
The Muzaffarnagar Kand
Activists travelling overnight to a rally in Delhi were stopped and fired upon at Rampur Tiraha. At least seven activists were killed, and there were widely reported accounts of assault on women activists in the chaos that followed — a night that remains the movement’s darkest chapter.
3 October 1994 — Dehradun
Grief turns to confrontation
News of Rampur Tiraha reached Dehradun during a funeral procession the next day, leading to further clashes and additional deaths — grief and anger spilling directly into the streets of the capital.
“Indramani Badoni, revered by the movement as the ‘Father of Uttarakhand,’ spent his life building the moral case for statehood that these sacrifices ultimately paid for.”
Movements & Campaigns
Party Agenda
UKD’s active, on-the-ground campaigns.
