Integrated Watershed Management
Three World Bank assisted integrated watershed management projects are being implemented in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Assam under the supervision of Ministry of Agriculture. The World Bank gives funds for these projects directly to State Governments.
In Uttarakhand, 2.34-lakh hectare area is to be covered in 468 Panchayats of 11 districts. At present, work is in progress in 467 selected gram Panchayats with an investment of Rs. 258.93 crore.
In Himachal Pradesh, the project covers 602-gram Panchayats in 10 districts and the work is in progress in all the selected Panchayats.
In Assam, 36, 129 tube wells and 11, 674 lift pump sets have been installed, 1077 power tillers have been supplied and provision of 700 tractors have been made under the project. An area of 15, 908 hectares has also been given drainage treatment.
Other Watershed Development programs
A German Technology Cooperation (GTZ) assisted project for decentralized watershed development is being implemented in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand on a pilot basis. It aims at capacity development system for watershed management at the regional and state level. A national consortium comprising Ministry of Agriculture, GTZ, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (NIAEM) have been constituted to achieve the objectives of the project.
NABARD’s Watershed Development Fund (WDF) is utilized for creating necessary framework to replicate and consolidate isolated but successful initiatives under different programmes in the Government, semi-government and NGO sectors. Initially, 18 states were identified for the project but ultimately only 13 states came forward.
In 2006, after Prime Minister’s Rehabilitation Package to 31 distressed districts in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, it was decided to implement participatory watershed development programmes in all these districts through WDF. At present, 1,196 watersheds have been selected, out of which 416 are in non-distressed districts of 13 states and 780 in 31 distressed districts under the PM’s package.
