ON
ENVIRONMENTAL AND LIVELIHOOD SECURITY
THROUGH RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN
NORTHERN INDIA
ELSTRM-2007
29-31 October, 2007
Chandigarh, U.T.
Organised by
Indian Association of Soil and Water Conservationists
Dehradun, Uttarakhand
in collaboration with
Department of Soil and Water Conservation
Govt. of Punjab, Chandigarh
&
Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute
Research Centre, Chandigarh
Over-exploitation of natural resources resulting in their severe degradation, diminishing water resources, declining forest cover, depleting energy sources, loss of biodiversity and generation of various kinds of wastes are the issues to be addressed on priority in India. During 1947 to 2002, average annual per capita water availability declined by almost 70 per cent due to increase in population and industrial demands. Groundwater depletion, vanishing wetlands, heavily siltation in tanks and shrinking storage capacity of reservoirs are the major problems confronting the management of water resources. Irrigation sector consumes as much as 83 per cent of available water resources followed by drinking and municipal (4.5%), energy (3.5%) and industrial sectors (3%), while other sectors account for only 6%. However, even after achieving the ultimate irrigation potential of 140 m ha, nearly 40% of the total cultivable area of the country would still remain rainfed.
As per latest estimates, about 45% of total geographical area of the country is degraded due to various processes of land degradation with water erosion affecting maximum area of 93.7 m ha. Land degradation causes 5% to more than 50% decline in total agricultural output every year and a loss of around 8 m tones of plant nutrients occurs due to water erosion annually. About 44% area has erosion rates of more than the permissible rate of 10 t/ha/yr beyond which, crop production declines if appropriate conservation practices are not adopted. Hence, efficient management and utilization of land, water and vegetation resources to meet the growing basic human and animal needs in terms of food, fibre, fodder, timber and fuel continues to be an issue of utmost concern for policy makers, planners, conservationists and environmentalists. The Govt. of India has launched several schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Bharat Nirman to increase productivity of different enterprises by adequately addressing the issues of ecology, economics, employment generation and livelihood security through appropriate resource conserving technologies.
Northern India has two distinct physiographic regions i.e. Himalayan Ecosystem and Great Indo-gangetic plains. The Himalayan ecosystem in the states of HP, J&K and Uttarakhand has most diversified livelihood support system comprising of agriculture, pastorals, horticulture and forestry and caters to the needs of water and power supply in large part of the country. It experiences problems of deforestation, land degradation through water erosion and siltation of reservoirs due to over-exploitation of resources. In Indo-gangetic plains covering States of Punjab and Haryana which constituted the heart land of Green Revolution era is in a state of economical and ecological distress. In the rice-wheat areas, the indiscriminate mining of ground water reserves is resulting in water table decline of about 1 m annually and submersible pumps are fast replacing the centrifugal pumps. It has also resulted in many second generation problems, viz; water logging and salinization, soil sickness, nutrient imbalances, etc. Sandwiched between the two physiographic regions is Shivalik range of low hills in 3.1 m-ha area which is most unstable due to unconsolidated land mass, unstable landscape, torrential rains and unscientific management practices.
Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Dehradun with its eight regional centres has developed successful models of eco-restoration, rainwater management, wasteland development and minespoil rehabilitation following participatory watershed approach. Sukhomajri, Fakot, Relmajra, Bunga, Sahastradhara projects are few successful examples in Northern India which have been widely replicated. Besides the CSWCRTI, the region has 7 SAUs, 2 deemed Agricultural Universities, more than a dozen ICAR Institutes, many NGOs and other agencies in addition to line departments of the partner states engaged in efficient utilization of limited natural resources. For detailed analysis and deeper understanding of region specific problems and setting up priorities for research and development in natural resources, the Indian Association of Soil and Water Conservationists, Dehradun, decided to organize a series of conferences in different regions of the country in 2004. Consequently, regional conferences for Southern and Western India were held in November 2005 and October 2006, respectively, which received overwhelming response with very focused and conclusive interactions among the delegates. Continuing the effort, the present conference for Northern Region of the country is being organized at Chandigarh to address the current issues of Natural Resource Management, productivity enhancement and livelihood security in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Delhi and Union Territory, Chandigarh. The conference aims at bringing together researchers, scientists, policy makers, planners, developmental agencies, administrators, NGOs and stakeholders on a common platform to share their rich experiences in NRM and related issues in North India and frame policy guidelines for improving the efficacy of various resource conservation programmes with due emphasis on livelihood and environmental security.
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