A Presentation on Watershed Management

The case of people's participation in watershed management in Ralegan Siddhi By : Ankit Khare Ivth Semester.

Introduction

Development fundamentally refers to human beings. It should be a human experience to meet people's physical, mental and emotional aspirations and potentials, not just in economic terms but should also lead to a sense of selfsufficiency and fulfilment. Ralegan Siddhi, often termed as an oasis of greenery surrounded by dry and bare hilly tracts is a unique example of transformation from poverty to plenty and a living model of people's participation in natural resource management in a watershed.

ANNA HAZARE Big achievements of a small man

Kishan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare Born on 15 January 1940 in a farmer's family in Bingar near Ahmednagar. Studied up to 7th standard(higher primary). In 1955, started a flower- selling shop in Mumbai. In 1962, selected for the Indian army; later influenced by Swami Vivekananda's thoughts. In 1965, survived the bomb-attack during Indo-Pak war. Felt like being reborn. A vow to do social service. Took voluntary retirement in 1975. Landed in Ralegan Siddhi and started rural development activities.

Ralegan siddhi

Ralegan Siddhi is a small village with an area of 982 hac in Parner county (taluka) of Ahmadnagar district, Maharashtra It is a drought-prone and resource poor area with annual rainfall ranging between 50-700 mm. Temperature varying between 28C and 44C. The village is surrounded by small hillocks on the northeast and southern sides. The land is undulating and slopes vary from 315%. The soils are shallow. In lower areas, patches of black soils mixed with pebbles are seen but towards the higher areas the soils are inferior and unsuitable for cultivation. In about 70% of the area the soils are light to medium in structure.

Features of Ralegan Siddhi Watershed

The area of the village is sub-divided into four watersheds. The topographical feature which includes elevation from the highest point of watershed to the lowest point of watershed is about 75 mts. The percentage slope of the watershed varies from 3 to 25 %. The strategy followed in planning these watershed is mainly to conserve the soil by checking the run off. This would increase the rate of infiltration of the rain water and thus increase the ground water recharge in the area.

Problems A Plenty
By 1975, prior to intervention by Mr. Anna Hazare, the situation of the village was at the peak of its deterioration. The village had become quite notorious with all sorts of social evils, moral down fall and with badly shattered economic conditions.. The water table was below 20 m, most of the wells used to dry up during summer and the drinking water had to be fetched from the neighbouring villages. The high rate of surface run off, due to high degree of slope and lack of vegetative cover had washed away the top fertile layer of the soils. Barely 20 ha of the village area was under irrigation.

Continue

As a consequence the agricultural production was too meagre to support and sustain the livelihoods of the people particularly the resource poor farmers. Not even 30% of the food grain requirements could be met from rain-fed monocropping practised in the village. About 45% of the villagers had a single meal/per day and about one-third of the households missed their meals every alternate day. The devastating drought of 1972 made the situation from bad to worse. The Government in its bid to help fight the drought, constructed a percolation tank but due to faulty design, lack of supervision, and high rate of percolation, it failed to serve the purpose.

Watershed Management at Ralegan Siddhi

Anna Hazare always stressed on consensus decision in village assembly, based on which he started with watershed management as the shortage of water was the most acute problem in

his village. Five voluntary codes were decided. These were: i. Ban on open grazing and felling of trees ii. Control on population growth (family planning), dowry and alcoholism. iii. Structures were created to conserve every drop of water by using simple but effective technology through 'shramdan'

Approaches/methods used for people's participation

Persuasion Gandhian approach Creation of a common platform Moral cleansing Selfless leadership Identification of the most pressing common problem Initiating the process of change at individual level

Approaches/methods used for people's participation

Socialization of costs and surpluses Democratic decision making process Social reform with strict discipline Need-based planned socio-economic development Cooperative management system Special focus on women Facilitating village organizations Water Rationing

The watershed development programme included the following treatments

Afforestation Live check dams Brushwood dams Gully plugging Loose boulders Earthern structures Contour bunding and graded bunding Land shaping & grading Nala bunding & cement nala bunding Under ground bandhara cum gabian structures Percolation tanks Use of improved seed for better Agronomical practices, Horticulture programmes under E.G.S.

Impact of Watershed Management

Five hundred thousand trees have been planted. Ground water is recharged from 20 m depth to 6.5 m Irrigation potential increased from 0.5 % in 1975 to 70 % in 1985. Agriculture production increased by four times. Thus, now there is enough food, fodder, fruit, firewood etc. in the village, not only for own consumption but surplus for export also. In the 1995 only, onion worth Rs. 8,000,000 (aprox. US$ 230,000) has been sold by the village. Now there is an intermediate college, post office, bank, cooperative societies, solar street lights, lowcost latrines, bio-gas plants, training centre for watershed management etc. in the village.

Achievements at Ralegan Siddhi

Successful implementation of voluntary codes e.g. ban on grazing, protection of green cover, check on extravagance on marriages etc. Regeneration of watershed resources through people's participation, a living example of watershed development and management. Non-degrading and sustainable utilization of natural resources as well as generating alternative sources of income to enhance the economy at family and village levels. Development of agriculture and allied sectors by better farming practices and cropping patterns, judicious use of water by introducing drip irrigation system, yield enhancement etc. The quality of life of women and people belonging to backward classes have improved appreciably

Weakness of Ralegan Siddhi

Though there has been tremendous improvement in the status of women and much has been done yet more remains to be done to involve them fully in the process. This means that women development needs specialized and extra effort. There is no effort towards the development of agro-based rural/small scale industries to enhance the value of the products and keep the participation of the people intact. The managerial capability is weak and it is reflected in the failure of cloth cutting and tailoring scheme and thereby weakening the participating of women

The case study shows the success of Gandhian approach to people's participation in watershed management. The major elements responsible for the successful people's participation in watershed management at the Ralegan Siddhi village are: emergence of local leadership, underpinning of moral sanctions for all, voluntary moral codes GO/NGO partnership, involvement of all sections of society, holistic and sustained development. The success has made the Government of India to request the leader (Mr. Anna Hazare) to take up the program in 300 counties (talukas) of Maharastra state. For his contributions, he has been very rightly honoured by the Government of India. His decorations include, Padma Bibhusan, Vriksh Mitra Puraskar, Krishi Bhushan etc. This is in fact, is a success story from poverty to prosperity by the efforts of a son of the soil.

Conclusion

Some Snaps Of Ralegan Siddhi

Check Dam

Gully plugging

Loose Boulder

Wire Gabion Structure