Dr. Bharat Bhushan
The increasing population and depleting forest cover has been a matter of concern all over the world. Resultantly, there has been unbearable pressure on natural resources and the water table is going down. Millions and millions of people have no access to safe drinking water. And the situation is turning worse with every passing day. Feeding world population on a sustained basis is also a challenge.
The world over, there has been an increasing awareness for the conservation of natural resources especially vegetative cover and water.
In our country also the government has taken a number of revolutionary steps to increase forest cover, increase irrigation facilities and improve quality of life of our farmers.
The introduction of erstwhile Integrated Watershed Management Programme in 2009-10, now Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana was a step in that direction among other measures.
The main aims of programme are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water, prevention of soil run off and Soil loss, Regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharching of the ground water table, enabling multicropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed areas.
The identification, prioritization and implementation of all WDC-PMKSY works is exclusively the mandate of Gram Sabha. The Gram Sabha will constitute the Watershed committee to implement the watershed project with the technical support of the Watershed Development Team in the village. The Gram Sabha may elect/appoint any suitable person from the village as the chairman of Watershed Committee. Sarpanch and/or ward member/Panchayat members may also be member/chairman of Watershed Committee.
The scheme got tremendous response all over the country and around 30 million hectare area has been treated/reclaimed through 9214 projects of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
The implementation of the programme started in J&K in the year 2011-12. A total of 144 projects were taken up in hand to treat 605196 hectares of land as per the State Perspective & Strategic Plan prepared by the experts of University of Jammu. Upto March 2022, 119 projects have been completed spanning over phase 3rd (37 projects), Phase 4th & 5th (41 projects each) and an area of 2.27 lakh hectares have been treated till date.
A total of 15874 works under PMKSY-WDC 1.0 have been executed under the programme. The works executed include Field Channels, Gabion Structures, Protection/retaining Walls, Water Harvesting Tanks, Check Dams, Gully Plugging, Irrigation Minor, Land Leveling, Percolation Tanks, Bowlies/Ponds, Recharge Pits, etc.
Pertinent to mention here that the Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana which Integrated Watershed Management Programme, J&K got a flip in last two years and in the year 2021-22 alone, 4138 works of water conservation, plantation, check dams and water harvesting structures have been completed benefitting farmers and the community at large in the project areas. There has been about three times increase in the physical achievement.
The Integrated Watershed Management Programme, J&K is now going to implement Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Phase 2nd from current financial year. It is expected that all the stake holders in the new project areas of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir will join hands with IWMP team and make the programme a success. The proper implementation of programme will definitely improve the lot of our farmers and the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to double the income of farmers is definitely going to happen.
(The writer is a JKAS Officer.)
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