Wastes Dumped in the Debed River Preventing Restoration of Tchotchkan Orchards

14:13, April 17, 2015

Tchotchkan, a village of 2,000 souls in Armenia’s northern Lori Province, once boasted 900 hectares of peach and grape orchards.

Today, according to village agronomist Sergey Cherchinyan, only 40 hectares remain.

Tchotchkan residents Hengel Siradeghyan and Yurik Galstyan believe that the orchards must be restored if villagers are to live relatively normal lives.

75 year-old Siradeghyan became involved in gardening after Armenia regained its independence in the early 1990s and has established an orchard measuring 1.3 hectares.

Mr. Siradeghyan has four sons, of which three have permanently left for Russia. The youngest goes and comes for work. Thus, the pensioner must take care of the orchard by himself.  Read more... (446 words)

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