Holding a bucket on her head, Rajeshwari Devi, was walking down the gently sloping hill in Ufrainkhal village, Chamoli district, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, in the milieu of the Himalayas itself—rolling verdant bugyals (meadows) on the one side, lush green forest of banj (oak) and deodars on the other with a snowy white garland of great Himalayan peaks kissing the sky on the backdrop with mighty Trishul trying to pierce it with its mighty trident. But, alas the women in this seemingly heaven, live a hellish life as they work hard: about 12 to 16 hours a day. Carrying biomass and water from the increasingly distant sources is considered exclusively women’s responsibility in devbhumi or land of the gods that Uttarakhand is popularly called.
That day also, women of the neighbouring Dulmot village were going to perform their scared duty: to collect water for their homes. But, thankfully, they no longer will have to walk miles; just about 500 meters down where a perennial hill river now flows; largely because of their efforts and commitment. “We realised the relationship between forests and water; especially on the upper slopes in the hills to recharge water down below the hill,” gurgles Devi, secretary, Mahila Mnagal Dal (MMD), Dulmot.
And women united under the MMDs of not one or two, but of 30 villages in the area to achieve the impossible. Down the hill, once it was only a dry channel full of mud, stones and debris. A dedicated Gandhian who was highly perturbed that people are thirsty in the mayaka (paternal home) of Ganga, the most sacred Indian river, decided to change this dismal picture. “Uttarakhand is called as the water tower of India where a huge natural water reservoir exists, but during the last 150-200 years, natural water sources dried up to a great extent as massive deforestation took place here. We worked to reverse the process, using traditional wisdom of people and water to ‘return’ them their original tradition,” says Sacchidananda Bharti, founder secretary, Dudhatoli Lok Vikas Sansthan (DLVS), a voluntary organisation, based in Ufrainkhal. He is dead right as Uttarakhand is literary thirsty as more than half of its population don’t even get minimum standard amount of daily water and about 40 percent of its villages and 25 percent towns are only partially covered by the drinking water supply. The worst is agriculture as less than 8 percent of its fields are irrigated and that’s too in the Terai (plain) regions.
Bharti was a teacher who got inspired by Chipko Andolan and decided to regenerate forests in his region as he was highly perturbed by the loss of green cover in the area and was moved by the trouble women in the mountains had to take for basic needs like fuel wood and fodder and how a degenerated forest meant not just more hard work but embarrassment too. Hence, he started a platform called Daliyon Ka Dagda (Friends of the Trees) in 1987 to plant as many broad-leaved trees as possible and spread the word of conservation.
This message indeed spread and the outcome was the formation of DLVS and it chose to involve women of the area as they bear the brunt of fetching water from far off places and also because, “DLVS has no paid worker. So the villagers had to bear the entire expense by free labour and using locally available materials” reasons Bharti. People, especially the hill women are the real stakeholders since, “The forest is actually there because of the thousands of women who took up the responsibility of their forest. It is natural that people who were most affected by the loss of forest came forward to protect it. When a village’s forest was destroyed, women had to go to another village to collect fuel wood and fodder. Therefore, a good forest within their own boundary is a very important criterion for a village to be called self-sufficient,” says Bharti.
And, he is dead right as one has to be in Ufrainkhal to see the forest. The humus is so thick one cannot walk on the land except for the designated pathways. There are trees with a height of more than 100 feet as well as a thick undergrowth. “It is not a plantation as is seen on land planted on by the forest department but a full-fledged natural forest,” points out Anupam Mishra, head of the environment unit of Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi and Bharti’s mentor and his pathfinder.
The idea was simple: catch the water before it falls, in other words, go for rainwater harvesting and the way out was to build as many as chaals and khaals as possible as plant grass, shrubs and broad-leaved trees around these structures and also elsewhere in the hills. Chaals and khaals are basically traditional water harvesting structures (TWHS) where a deep depression is created in the flat are of the hills or they are saucer shaped depressions where rainwater is gathered that not only quenches the thirst of people and livestock, but also recharges groundwater as it percolates down, emerging as water sources called naulas and dharas and gad and gatheras or rivulets. As a rule, a good amount of greenery exists around these TWHS.
Usually, these TWHS are big structures: many meters wide and long and several feet deep. Naturally, DLVS couldn’t build these structures. Hence, they struck upon the idea to build thousands of small water trenches called jal talaies. They are basically rectangular structures: about 2 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and a meter deep. DLVS built as many as 20,000 jal talaies purely as a community movement that has also generated a forest on 700 hectares of mountain land with over 30 lakhs trees in less than 20 years; beginning from the early 1990s, basically broad-leave species of banj, walnut, kafal, mehul, pangar and utis. It was the outcome of a deep contemplation as in 1993 he started Paani Rakho Andolan (Keep the Water Movement) observing the problem of forest fires and droughts in the lower Himalayas, and decided to construct small ponds or jal talaies in Dudhatoli and soon this movement spread to 30 villages.
Besides arresting water, these trees also fulfill biomass requirement of people and since gathering biomass is also women’s responsibility primarily, they are happy that this work has reduced their back breaking labour, “No longer, we’ve to walk miles to collect banj leaves and fuel wood. It is available right in our village,” tells Saraswati Devi, 32, Diara village, Chamoli district. Others are equally contended, “Not just leaves and fuelwood, we now get meetha paani (potable water) right here, thanks to the hard work we did and the path our trailblazer (Bharti) showed us,” says an ebullient Ghuruli Devi, Gadkharam village, Chamoli district.
More than a rivulet christened Gadganga that joins Ganga at Byasi, a village, some 25 km down, these jal talaies have also rejuvenated many naulas and dharas, other TWHS in these 30 villages. Naulas are shallow water wells, usually inside a temple like structure and dharas are as the name suggests: water fountains, emerging as a stream, usually from a crafted stone structure. Women happily use these structures that are often at a walking distance from their homes. “Thanks to on the hills above our village, this dhara is now perennial, even during hot summer months,” tells Kaushlaya Devi, Dandkhal village, Chamoli district, collecting water from a dhara shaped as a lion’s mouth. Same is the picture in the neighouring village where women have lined up at a naula inside the village Shiva temple, “Now, neither the god, nor us will ever be deprived of good, potable water,” declares Hasuli Devi, Basola village, Chamoli district. She is echoing the feeling of the villagers as the village has two naulas and a dhara, besides water in Gadganga rivulet down below that has a good discharge of three liters a minute even during the peak summer months.
Besides water, biomass and fuel wood, people are also getting fruits such as walnut and kafal for nothing.
Bharti’s exemplary work has motivated others to follow suit. Jandesh, a Joshimath based NGO has taken a primary lead in this regard. It has constructed 2560 such jal talaies in 5 villages in a highly Kalpeshwar Mahadev, one of panch kedras, picturesque region of Chamoli district in 2011. This has rejuvenated many naulas and dharas and people are happy as they are now yielding good amount of potable water. “Our women have much more free time that ever before and are enjoying a healthy life,” says Laxman Singh Negi, Secretary, Jandesh. Women give an affirmative support to him, “No longer, we’ve to walk miles to collect water as our village dhara now has become perennial,” reveals Rajrajeshwari Devi, 34, Village Geera, Chamoli district. Others are also contended. “Our tok (hamlet) was deprived of forest and water earlier, now we have good forest that provides sufficient biomass to us and a rejuvenated naula that is always full of water,” confirms Kamala Devi, 26, Ganesh Mangra tok, Salna village, Chamoli district.
Similar attempts were elsewhere in Uttarakhand such as in Almora district by a notable NGO, Uttarakhand Seva Nidhi went for establishing jal talaies in several villages. As the area is notorious for water shortage, people in these villages are enjoying a good life as they have good amount of water now. “The water post of jal sansthan (water works department) was always dry and no amount of complaint could move their employees. Now, two dharas in the village has sufficient water,” says Umesh Pande, Garudabanj village, Almora district. More than men, in fact, women are a much happier lot, “No more nerve breaking walk for us and our children can go to school on time as we give them food on time,” explains Hasuli Devi, Khola village, Almora district. Even in the far off region of Uttarkashi, such work is yielding water. And, happiness. Here, Suresh Bhai of Rakshasutra Andolan (RS), an Uttarkashi based NGO, has followed Bharti’s footstep. Uttarkashi, being in the midst of huge Ganga Watershed, was never a water starved region, until recently when the craze of the policymakers for huge hydro-electricity dams based on run-of-the-river model, has reduced these rivers, including the holy Alaknanda, into underground canals, coupled with massive loss of forests. It has resulted into drying up of NWHS. RS also went for constructing jal talaies in many villages and as elsewhere, here too the result has been more than encouraging. “Our village was known as the water reservoir, but these dams and bijali (power) projects to convert Uttarakhand into urja pradesh (power state), resulted into totally drying up of these water sources. Now, these jal talaies have revived our dharas,” says Durgadatt Nautiyal, Gangnani village, Uttarkashi district. Others are also happy that they will no longer remain thirsty, “Ours may be the water tower of Asia. But, until the RS began its mission, ours was a case of chirag tale andhera (darkness under the lamp), now we’re full of nectar—the potable water,” titters Hemawati Devi, 23, a post-graduate, Nauti village, Uttarkashi district.
Even the Forest Department (FD), Uttarakhand has made an attempt for the rejuvenation of water sources, following Bharti’s model. The steep Shuklapur forest, adjacent to Dehradun city was totally deprived of water as rainwater would simply flow down the gorges. “We thought to arrest this rain and as it rains a lot in the region, there was no dearth of rainwater here. The only question was how to catch it and not let go waste,” says DBS Khati, Chief Forest Conservator, Garhwal. The FD decided to join hands with HESCO, a Dehradun based NGO. Together, they built check dams and 1,000 jal talaies in the 41 ha forest, just on the outskirts of the city. During the last rainy season, when it rained for 41 days, a total transformation of the forest was visible. “We built 181 check dams and four & six water conservation tanks of 43,000 and 64,000 liter capacity and conserved 29 lakh liter water,” informs Punkaj Kumar, an engineer, HESCO. Besides, these two overflowing dams, a dry rivulet, Chhoti Assan Ganga, down the tapering Shiwalik Hills now has good amount of water. Van Gujjars, nomadic animal rearers living in this forest are quite happy, “This Chhoti (small) rivulet should now be called badi (big) river as we and our animals now have sufficient water,” chuckles Jahoor Alam, 38, a van Gujjar. Definitely, Alam is not off the mark as the rivulet now has a discharge of 200 liters per second. And, as a bonus, the stoppage of free flowing water has resulted into soil conservation as the soil layer has increased by 2 cm, leading to the new growth of several plant species.
So this quiet revolution started from Ufarenkhal, that literally means ufarain; or a van devi (forest goddess) and khal, or water depression, that indicate the inseparable relationship of forest and water, should spread to the entire state and for this Bharti, amiably called Paani Wale Baba (the water saint) and now also working as Advisory Member, Planning Commission, Government of Uttarakhand is ready. His efforts to rejuvenate TWHS and working with a pure Gandhian ideal got a boost when the Madhya Pradesh Government announced to award Rashtriya Mahatma Gandhi Samman for the year 2008-09, the biggest monetary award in the country. Bharti received this amount of Rs. 10 lakhs and a plaque of honour. Awarding the Samman on 2 October 2011, Laxmikant Sharma, Minister for Culture, Madhya Pradesh Government says, “DVKS is an organisation that has worked on the ideals, principles and notions of Mahatma Gandhi and this Samman recognises the VO’s works related to greenery and understanding the challenges to land, water and forest resources in advance and evolving their solutions with a total selfless approach. Such works relate the VO directly with social welfare,”
And, his works indeed relate so as the VO is committed to carry forward this work as a community work and has refused a proposal of a colossal amount of Rs. 1,200 crores that the World Bank was offering for afforestation in 1999 when a World Bank team visited Dudhatoli, saying that, “It would make people to forget the essence of the movement and make them run after the money.”
He was also awarded Hall of Fame Award by a Delhi based magazine Civil Society, in 2016, in which they select five outstanding persons every year who have done remarkable works in social sphere.
Now, as the Advisory Member, Planning Commission, Government of Uttarakhand, Bharti has advised the current Government of Uttarakhand to establish a board, comprising of both central and state government officials, researchers and activists in the proposed water policy of Uttarakhand to take a long term perspective of the water problem in the state. Sadly, the water policy of the state is yet at the draft stage and is yet to be finalised. Better the Government of Uttarakhand pay attention to his advice soon. Now, the ball is with the current ruling BJP Government. However, the government is moving at a snail space while the summer has hit the state and forest fires started.
It should be noted here that last year when forest fires engulfed a huge area of Uttarakhand, it couldn’t touch Ufarenkhal, thanks to these jal tallaiyas.
Himalayan Desk 