Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched the 1st Census of Water Bodies in convergence with the 6th Minor Irrigation (MI) Census under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Irrigation Census”. The objective of the Census of Water Bodies is to develop a national database for all water bodies by collecting information on …
Despite several government programmes, Ramanathpuram district of Tamil Nadu faces severe water shortage. Vivekanand Kendra, a voluntary organisation, tries to convince villagers in Mudukulattur block to participate in reviving ooranis (traditional tanks) and harvest rain from the rooftops. The organisation set about motivating villagers through film shows and weekly group …
Despite several government programmes, Ramanathpuram district of Tamil Nadu faces severe water shortage. Vivekanand Kendra, a voluntary organisation, tries to convince villagers in Mudukulattur block to participate in reviving ooranis (traditional tanks) and harvest rain from the rooftops. The organisation set about motivating villagers through film shows and weekly group …
the skeletonised frame of 68-year-old Manglu Bhoi doesn't shiver with the chilly spring breeze on a bright February morning, but with the thought that he has to walk for two kilometres to fetch a bucket of water. A resident of India's poorest district, Balangir, he is one of the million …
Melchhamunda is an oasis in the parched western Orissa. The village in the Bargarh district is fighting the drought with its 400-year-old pond that still contains water. The village depends on agriculture for survival and is only source of irrigation is the around 10-hectare Kata. As Deepak Bhoi, a resident …
These systems were evolved keeping in mind the unique topography of the region. Earlier, kings used to give agricultural lands to those maintaining tanks as incentives. Today, most of these structures are in a dilapidated condition, and in some cases have simply vanished. bandh: A traditional pond that is usually …
• Community structures transferred to government after Independence. Community lost their rights l Attention shifted to modern irrigation projects often not suitable to the local topography. l Rich farmers converted tanks into agriculture lands earlier shared by the community for irrigation l Deforestation led to siltation in the catchments areas …
for the people of Mandsaur, Dewas and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh drought has been a daily scourge that they learnt to live with. They would wait endlessly for water trains, lock barrels of water to prevent theft and protest sporadically against the scarcity. The recent drought, however, has made …
of the nearly 39,000 tanks that recharge the groundwater in Tamil Nadu, more than 20,000 of them are small minor irrigation tanks. The level of water in these tanks is dependent on the vagaries of the weather. Most of the farmers of the area are entirely dependent on this system …
in the hill-fort of Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, lie the ruins of a 1,400-year-old civilisation ruled by numerous dynasties, including the Mughals. Cocooned in these ruins, at 633.7 metres above sea level, is also a sophisticated and need-based water harvesting system. Devoid of groundwater, the hill-top town depended on rain for …
BEAVERS, known for their ingenuity at damming small streams using branches, are unwittingly contributing to global warming (New Scientist, Vol 142, No 1931). Beaver ponds flood low-lying areas and, like wetlands, cause the decay of submerged vegetation, which produces the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide. But Joseph Yavitt and …
NOTED environmental activist and writer Anupam Mishra's recent book on tanks is a significant contribution to environmental studies for at least three reasons: first, it establishes the historical and continuing role for, and the current relevance of, traditional water conservation, irrigation, and drinking water systems, even faced with the state's …
OUT OF the total 303.42 million ha of land that make up India, 136.18 million ha were categorised in 1987-88 as net sown area and of this, only 43.05 ha receives irrigation. The sources of irrigation, according to official records, are canals, tubewells, tanks, wells and other sources, a classification …
AGRICULTURE IN south India has traditionally been based upon small-scale irrigation, using tanks, wells and river water. In this system, temples were not merely places of worship but played a pivotal role in irrigation management. They represented the crystallisation of community efforts, which explains why Tamil Nadu chief minister J …
