Bundelkhand crisis

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OPED Thursday, September 10, 2009 Print Close

Degradation of land endangers Bundelkhand

Faced with relentless march of ravines, many villages are on the verge of getting wiped out, writes Sachin Jain The recent focus on Bundelkhand is not without reason. In fact it is surprising that a long-neglected region which suffers from a harsh terrain and topography and is burdened by a crumbling feudal social system did not merit attention and action earlier. Straddling both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the region has borne countless harsh summers which has robbed its rich soil cover, leaving it arid and dotted with rocks. Of its total area of 30 lakh hectares, only 24 lakh hectares is arable. Within this only four lakh hectare is irrigated, and herein lies the core problem. Availability and approach to water, on which Bundelkhand’s fragile agricultural produce depends, are at the centre of the problem. Due to geological compositions, the terrain does not allow adequate retention of water. Which is why traditional societies in Bundelkhand evolved ways to mitigate its ill effects by constructing ponds and cultivating crops that require less water? Traditional wisdom factored in the undulating topography wherein ponds and water structures constructed at higher levels were connected through canals to those at lower levels, thus ensuring that once ponds at higher level fill up, water would naturally flow down to fill the lower level ones. This intricate network was really the lifeline of the region. Sadly, the administration does not seem to be in tune with this near-flawless system. All it really had to do was to just continue with this organic system of water-management devised and managed by the local communities. In fact it could have ensured that the community itself develops the capacity to manage the system at low cost, without the authorities having to provide routine support. Instead our policy-implementing bodies thought otherwise and what we have today is a beleaguered region in dire need of water. Starting on the wrong foot, as it were, seven medium level dams were constructed in the region ruining nearly 30,000 hectares of fertile land. The expenditure incurred on the construction was phenomenal, but the results were not. The dams are only able to utilise 38 per cent of the irrigation potential, a sorry ratio for a region that only had to develop its own intrinsic capacities of water conservation and management. The present scenario seems the anti-thesis of what would have been natural and in tune with Bundelkhand’s topography and the needs of its people. It’s a recipe for disaster with rampant use of tubewells, ground water being indiscriminately pumped up and the land getting denuded. One has to remember that Madhya Pradesh has a history of drought which comes once every five years. The situation in Bundlekhand region is much more acute. It has faced drought eight times in last nine years in this decade. Then why is it so hard for Governments to remember and factor into the action taken on the ground? One has to only look at Chambal to see a land ravaged and a cess-pool of violence and degradation. Is Bundelkhand also going or being allowed to go the Chambal way? With its lack of forest, rocky terrain, its woefully inadequate water management system, is it also gradually turning into ravines? The degradation seems evident and rapid. In Chhatarpur district around the Ken-Dhasan river, about 1.5 lakh acre land is turning into ravine. And this is endemic. In Panna 50,000 acre, Tikamgarh 12,000 acre, Datia 70,000 acre and in Damoh 62,000 acre land is under threat to be turned into a ravine zone. Is there more to this than meets the eye? Are measures being taken or not taken surreptitiously to ensure that Bundelkhand remains in the throes of a crisis? Once a land becomes fallow and is out of agricultural ambit, the Government can take steps to officially declare it to be infertile and divert it for non-agriculture and non-forest purposes. The process of diverting thousands of hectares of land in Chambal, especially in Morena district is already underway. Would this be the agenda in Bundelkhand too? Faced with relentless march of the ravines, today 471 villages in Bundelkhand are on the verge of getting wiped out. Rather than making efforts of increasing the forest cover, which is only eight per cent of total land area, the Government is hell-bent on promoting industries which would damage the existing remaining forest area and destroy the minimum water resources available. It is clear that drought is not caused simply because the rains fail one year. Rather it is a gross neglect of its environmental patterns and the absence of an enlightened response to the needs of this harsh terrain which nurtures a fragile ecosystem. By allowing degradation of land, policy-makers are fuelling not only agricultural distress, but also jeopardising people who will be impacted by the crises.