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Long-term impacts of a watershed development project on hydrological, socio-economic, environmental and land use aspects in drought-prone Aravali ecosystem of Rajasthan: A case study

Indian Agricultural Research Journals

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Title Long-term impacts of a watershed development project on hydrological, socio-economic, environmental and land use aspects in drought-prone Aravali ecosystem of Rajasthan: A case study
 
Creator GREWAL, S.S.
 
Subject Aravali ecosystem
Rainwater harvesting
Groundwater depletion
Wasteland development
Land use
 
Description The groundwater extraction more than recharge emerged as a challenge for sustainability of agrarian economy in the drought- prone Aravali Hills ecosystem of Rajasthan where irrigated agriculture expanded disregarding low rainfall, harsh climate and sandy soils.. A corporate-supported integrated watershed development project operated in 35 villages of Tijara block located in foot of Aravali Hills from 2006 to 2016 with the interventions of construction of 208 earthen water harvesting dams(WHD) for ground water recharge, reclamation of 1850 ha of privately owned waste lands, plantation of 54000 fruit and 4.5 lakh fodder trees on reclaimed lands and formation of 272 Self Help Groups(SHG) for women empowerment. Data on all these interventions was compiled systematically from 2007 to 2022 by a technical support group. Since information on the long term impacts and sustainability of such projects was grossly inadequate, an impact assessment study on hydrological, socio-economic, environmental and land use parameters was conducted in 2022. Out of 208 WHD, data on rainfall, rainwater harvested and groundwater recharge was collected from 35 representative reservoirs. The changes in groundwater levels due to water harvesting were recorded from 44 observation wells. Similarly, data on changes in land use, status of women SHGSs, social and economic aspects was compiled. The paper encapsulates the salient results of this study taking Gotoli a typical village covered under the project as a test case. More than 60 percent of study years recorded below average rainfall causing more extraction of groundwater. Twenty two percent reservoirs became non functional as land above small catchments were leveled by the farmers The remaining eighty percent functional reservoirs developed the problem of low recharge due to the deposition of a fine layer of silt on the surface. This problem was resolved by de-siltation with positive results. However, the recharge by functional reservoirs was only 10 percent of extraction when number of bore wells increased from 12 to124 thereby lowering water table by 8m in last12 years in the study village. The reclamation of wastelands increased crop and milk yield but added more number of bore wells. Though farmers have adopted sprinkler irrigation to save water but energy costs on extracting water from deeper layers have increased. The erstwhile rain-fed pearl millet and mustard crops were replaced by wheat, cotton and vegetable crops because of their profitability but required more numbers of irrigations. However, due to recent price increase of mustard and pearl millet, area under these low water requiring crops have increased.. Pearl millet used only 5cm depth of water to mature the crop against 15, 30, 40 and 80 cm by mustard, cotton, wheat and onion crops. The interventions on fruit plants and SHGs ended with failures due to a variety of reasons. The fodder tree plantations of Ailanthus excelsa though had low survival but accepted by the farmers because of its multiple benefits. The overall improvement of income was indicated by the increase in number of buffaloes, tractors, bikes and better housing and education .The increased tree cover created an oasis of greenery in the village. The study suggests that pearl millet and mustard crops should be promoted with price incentives to solve the problem of unsustainable levels of groundwater extraction. The ever increasing number of bore wells and water table going down in-spite of intensive rainwater harvesting remains a problem defying solution. This information shall be useful for the implementing agencies of integrated watershed development projects in water stressed ecosystem of Aravalis Hills.
 
Publisher Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
 
Date 2024-07-12
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Identifier https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/JSWC/article/view/153701
 
Source Journal of Soil and Water Conservation; Vol. 22 No. 2 (2023)
2455-7145
0022-457X
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Soil Conservation Society of India, New Delhi