Watershed Voices

Darewadi Watershed Project
In 1996, Darewadi, a remote, drought prone village in the rain shadow region of Maharashtra, India, was a picture of despair; depleted of natural resources necessary for rural livelihood. Even drinking water was not assured. Villagers had to migrate to resource-endowed areas working seasonally at sugarcane cutting or in brick kilns of contractors. Some herded sheep, which further depleted the already fragile ecosystem. Agricultural production — even in a year of reasonably good rain — was sufficient for only 3-4 months; labour opportunities were scarce. Women had to work hard to fetch water and fuel from long distances and for their other basic needs. Download PDF.

Pimpale: A Magical Transformation
Prior to 2002, village Pimpale in district Nandurbar of North Maharashtra was just another of those barren and isolated places the residents of which had either resigned to their fate or migrated to the cities in search of work. The lack of water had turned the fi elds dry. The land was parched. Most of the houses had been abandoned. And there was this thick blanket of despair and misery. The village elders had assumed that there was no way out of their drudgery. In 2002, a few of Pimpale’s seniors heard about the miraculous benefi ts of watershed development in their neighborhood, and this raised their curiosity. It was this that brought them to WOTR. After undertaking a ground study of whether a watershed project would yield the required benefi ts for the village, it was decided to go ahead and initiate the basic process. Download PDF

Mhaswandi Watershed Project

When the fiery furnaces of nearby charcoal kilns were fed with wood from Mhaswandi's verdant forests, its residents were happy, cash-rich and grateful to the rich timber merchants who acted as middlemen in the sale. This new source of easy income flowed into their homes, bringing in its wake a legacy these villagers knew nothing about and were even less prepared to meet. It took a handful of years for the forests, the merchants and the money to vanish. The devastation left behind was unprecedented, catastrophic enough to sweep the future of generations into oblivion. Landscape, barren as far as the eye could see; earning sources shrivelled up into woefully small ruminants and scrub cattle, which further caused land depredation due to free grazing leading to further soil-loss and poorer productivity. Download PDF

Purushwadi: From Parched Land To Fertile Fields
The changes that watershed brings into the lives of people can best be represented through model villages, one of them being Purushwadi. Visitors to this charming village will vouch for the fact that there is substance in the theory and implementation of how a collective effort can turn apparently impossible tasks into dreams come true. At Purushwadi, the villagers and WOTR have achieved this, working shoulder to shoulder to turn barren land into farms.

To develop a watershed means, conventionally, to treat this whole area in such a way so as to conserve and nurture the natural resources of the area. These natural resources chiefly include the soil and water. Therefore, under these projects, earthen, boulder or vegetative structures are erected across gullies and along contour lines, and areas are earmarked for particular land use based on their land capability classification, so as to be able to ward off soil run-off, to enhance soil moisture and to recharge and enrich underground water reservoirs. Download PDF

Mandwa Village: The Metamorphosis of Life After Water Seeped Into its Soil…

With the agrarian crisis spreading its deathly grip over regions earlier considered well endowed, is a self-reliant village economy a tangible dream? Is it anywhere close to an attainable goal in an era where sectoral development approaches are the norm? While attempts are afoot to find responses on different fronts, a solution that is basic, sure and sustainable is to conserve and enrich the natural resource base on which the village community depends for its sustenance and livelihood. Going along with nature by protecting and developing watersheds is one of the tried and tested methods of being ensured of receiving from mother earth ceaselessly from one generation to the next. And when this is managed by a zealous and persistent community it provides a continuous spin to a virtuous and veritable cycle of sustainable living. Such a model addresses the twin objectives of resource conservation and rural development. With several empirical evidences of success to its credit, ‘participatory watershed development’ is emerging as a radical model for sustainable development that scores many points over other suggested methods.Download PDF