आदर्शगाव गावडेवाडी
1.
गावाचे नाव - गावडेवाडी
2.
स्थापना दिनांक - ०९/०७/१९६२
3.
सरपंचांचे नाव - सौ. छाया आनंदराव गावडे
4.
उपसरपंचांचे नाव - सौ. लता दत्तात्रय जारकड
5.
ग्रामसेवकाचे नाव
- श्रीमती. पाटोळे ए.एम
6.
गावाची एकुण लोकसंख्या - एकूण - ३८४0, पुरुष - १३०४ स्त्री - १२६८
ग्रामपंचायत
प्रभाग - प्रभाग ४
8. ग्रामपंचायत सदस्य - ११ पैकी, पुरुष - ५ स्त्री - ६
9.
भौगोलिक क्षेत्र - एकुण क्षेत्र - १२४३, पैकी गायरान क्षेत्र हे - ५७ हे वनक्षेत्र - ४१३ हे
लागवड लायकक्षेत्र - ८३० हे
बागायती क्षेत्र - ७२८ हे, जिरायती क्षेत्र - १०२ हे.
10.
प्रमुख पिके - बाजरी, भुईमुग, गहू, हरभरा, बटाटा, भाजीपाला, चारापिके, ऊस इ.
11.
फळबाग लागवड एकूण
क्षेत्र - ८५.३४ हे
12.
जलसंधारणाची कामे - पाझर तलाव दुरुस्ती- १
साखळी बंधारे - ४ समतल चर - १२, सिमेंट बंधारे- १
जलयुक्त शिवार अभियान अंतर्गत आंबा लागवड.
माती बंधारे, गाळ काढणे, लोकसहभाग
13.
शैक्षणिक सुविधा - १ ली ते ७ वी प्राथमिक शाळा,
८ वी ते १० वी हिरकणी माध्यमिक विद्यालय
आदर्श गावगावडेवाडीस मान्यवरांच्या भेटी
श्री प्रतिभाताई पाटील मा. राष्ट्रपती भारत सरकार
श्री पी.व्ही नरसिंहराव, मा. पंतप्रधान.
श्री. चंद्रशेखर, मा. पंतप्रधान
श्री.मोहन धारिया , केंद्रीय मंत्री
श्री पी.सी अलेकझांडर , राज्यपाल .
श्री एस.सी जमीर, मा. राज्यपाल.
श्री. ड्रो. रघुनाथ माशेलकर, शाश्रज्ञ
श्री शिवाजीराव आढळराव पाटील खासदार शिरूर लोकसभा मतदार संघ
श्री दिलीपराव वळसे पाटील आमदार आंबेगाव मतदार संघ,
श्री अजितदादा पवार, उपमुख्यमंत्री.
श्री जयंत पाटील , ग्रामविकास मंत्री.
श्री .रोबर्ट रीन्ग्लीर जर्मनी संसद प्रतिनिधी.
श्री ऐदिता ओक्राल, स्विस बँक स्वीझेर्लंड.
श्री. एस बी शर्मा, अर्नाडीफौन्डेषण
श्री सुनंदा माने ,लाही पुणे.
श्री. योगेश कुलकर्णी , संचालक विज्ञान आश्रम पाबळ
श्री फिरोज पूनावाला, लीला पूनावाला फौंडेशन, पुणे
Background
Clean roads, lush green farms and wells having water even at the peak of
summer is what one notices when one enters Gawdewadi Village of Ambegaon Taluka
in Pune Distrct.
Ralegan Siddhi and Hiware Bazar villages of Maharashtra are two widely
discussed success stories of sustainable village development through soil and
water conservation works. There are however lesser known success stories of
equal caliber. Gawadewadi is possibly one such story. Participatory soil and
water conservation work started for improving water availability in the village
for drinking and agricultural purposes has led to multiple other initiatives
like cooperative dairy, gobar gas plants for the households, horticulture etc.
A chain of benefits has unfolded over more than ten years of hard work put in
by the villagers. The village is now tanker free, crops have diversified,
agricultural production has gone up and so have income levels. Most rewarding
benefit has been the homecoming of more than 165 families which had migrated to
Pune or Mumbai in search of work.
Gawadewadi has successfully demonstrated how small scale ‘active solution’
of participatory soil and water conservation works can become a successful
alternative to large scale ‘passive solution’ such as building dams.
The success story is even more important in the context of changing climate.
The Working Group II of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in
its report titled ‘Climate Change 2014: Impacts,
Adaptation, and Vulnerability’released on 31st
March 2014[i][ii], acknowledges that Ecosystem Based
Adaptation (EBA) to Climate Change (such as soil and water conservation works)
is a lower risk option as against engineering solutions (such as dams) as their
application is more flexible, more responsive to unanticipated environmental
changes and is more cost effective & sustainable. It also acknowledges that
building large dams is not a climate friendly option. The report further states
that EBA may contribute to achieving sustainable development goals (e.g.
poverty reduction, sustainable environmental management, and even mitigation
objectives), especially when they are integrated with sound ecosystem
management approaches.
In this regard the success story of Gawadewadi assumes greater importance.
Gawadewadi (Ambegaon taluka, Pune district) with a total area of 1243
Ha is a village located about 10 km away from Manchar on the
Pune-Nashik road and 70 KM away from Pune city. It is a rainfed
watershed lying in the rainshadow region of Maharashtra state (Figure 1[iii]).
Average annual rainfall is about 500 mm. The terrain is mostly flat.
Southern boundary of the village is hilly which flatten in central and
northern portion. Out of 1,243 ha of land 878 ha is cultivable. Most of
the families in this village are small land holders. Current population
of the village is about 3190. After drought of 1972-73 the village was
dependent on tankers for drinking water during summer, agricultural
productivity was low and a large number of people had migrated to Pune
and Mumbai in search of employment.
In 1985, residents of Gawadewadi with local leadership of Anna
Pimpale visited Ralegan Siddhi village in Parner taluka of Ahmednagar
District. Impressed by the holistic development of the Ralegan Siddhi
the residents were determined to transform Gawadewadi. Vanarai, a
voluntary organization based in Pune that was approached by the
villagers agreed to act as a catalyst in this process of development.
Soil and water conservation works started in 1991. Technical inputs
needed for the watershed development works were given partly by
Irrigation Department and partly by Agricultural department. Along with
these funds no grazing and no cutting of trees was diligently followed.
Since there are no landless cattle breeders following no open grazing
regulation was easier.
Sr. No. Structure number
1 Soil bunds - 18
|
2 -- Loose Boulder Bunds -- 03
|
3 --- Underground Bunds--03
|
4 -- Gabion Structures--01-
|
3-- Percolation Tanks--05
|
vanrai Bund-01There are four catchment areas spread over 1400 Ha. Adopting top to
bottom approach for watershed treatment Continuous Contour Trenches
(CCT) (Figure 2), loose boulders and stone bunds were constructed on the
ridges; soil bunds, cement bunds, gabion structures and percolation
tanks were constructed at the bottom of the catchment. CCT works on the
ridges is carried out by forest department. Under social forestry
programme Village Panchayat has planted 1,10,000 trees on 34 acre land.
Table above lists the existing watershed structu
|
Total expenses incurred for the project were Rs 60 lakh for
construction of watershed structures and Rs one lakh for trainings. This
money was spent during first 5 to 6 years of work during 1991-97 and
funded by various government departments like Agriculture Department,
Social Forestry Department, Ground Water Survey and Development Agency
and also by Vanarai.
Water availability has slowly increased. After the great drought
1972-73 the village survived entirely on tankers post February every
year. Government had to send two to three tankers per day to cater for
drinking water. The village is now completely tanker free. Wells that
had no water after December earlier now have water even at May end
(Figure 4). Earlier the only crops harvested were bajra and jowar.
Farmers could barely cultivate once a year. Now the crop diversity
includes tomatoes, potatoes, groundnut, wheat, sugarcane etc. Village
also produces export quality custard apples, pomegranates and grapes.
Farmers take three rounds of crops in a year instead of one. The village
now has irrigated area of 150 Ha. In 1991, 500 people from the village
were daily wage labourers. Now there are nil. Area under horticulture
was 11 Ha in 1991 which has now increased to 142 Ha (Figure 5 & 6).
Increased fodder development resulted in increased milk production. Milk
collection which was 200 lt per day in 1991 has gone up to 12000 lt per
day. The village experienced no scarcity of water in drought of 2012.
Domestic demand for water was unaffected by drought. For agriculture the
usual round of water is once in 10 days which had to be adjusted to
once in 20 days during the drought. “We did not even realize that there
was a drought” says Jaywant Gawade a villager.
Vanarai
has played a role of facilitator. It coordinated the local officers of
various ministries & departments and pooled different resources to
make them available to the village. Vanarai awakened the local
leadership and conducted training programmes for developing different
skills and also worked for empowerment of women and youth.
Watershed development worked as a platform for the villagers to come
together. With resources made available from Vanarai the participatory
initiatives soon diversified to other livelihood generating and
development initiatives. Following footsteps of Ralegan Siddhi the
village followed the principles of ban on alcohol, no use of axe, no
grazing, shramdan and family planning. Latrines were
constructed in all the households. Biogas plants have been constructed
in 265 households and latrines have been connected directly to the
biogas plants. Entire cooking for all these families is taken care of by
biogas. Increased fodder availability has made it feasible to rear
cattle and thus has ensured the availability of cow dung. There are 13
women Self Help Groups (SHGs) involved in activities like sericulture,
vermi composting etc. The village now has nine dairies. These dairies
were actively functioning till 2-3 years back. The milk collected was
sent to Katraj Doodh Sastha (Pune). Since last two three years private
milk product companies collect milk from individual households and pay
for the same. Villagers opted for this as it is a more convenient
option. In 1994 the villagers established Hirkani Vidyalay, a
local school with contribution from village. The momentum of village
development which geared up 10-12 years back is still very much alive.
Currently Vanarai is involved in improving the marketing of agriculture
produce. The villagers now want to focus on improving the agricultural
practices. After increase in the water availability the cultivated area
under sugarcane has also increased. Currently the area for sugarcane
cultivation is 60% of the total cultivated land. The sugarcane is sent
to Pargaon Cooperative Sugar Factory. The factory has been existing for
last 15 years. About 90% of the sugar cultivators from the village are
members of this sugar factory.
This is a matter of concern in such low rainfall area and it has
intensified the water use. With this realization the villagers are
slowly shifting towards drip irrigation. They are also keen on learning
sound crop water management and organic farming practices. Data for the
current water use and ground water levels for past few years could not
be available for this study.
Dynamics with Dimbhe dam
The village was self reliant in terms of water availability four to
five years prior to irrigation canal provided by the government. Right
Bank Canal (RBC) of Dimbhe dam which was constructed in 1997 passes
through the village (Figure 7[iv]
& 8). Dimbhe dam was filled to capacity in 2000, submerging 2202
hectares land of tribals in the Ambegaon taluka. 1253 families had to
shift out, 11 villages were submerged fully and another thirteen
villages were partially affected. Villagers inform that there is no
fixed schedule followed for releasing water in RBC of the dam. The Left
Bank Canal (LBC) constructed in 1987 has water throughout the year since
it carries water downstream to Yedgaon dam[v].
However RBC receives water only thrice a year. The latest round of
water release, as I write this was in February 2014. The water lasted
for crops for about 30 to 35 days. The next round of water was due in
May 2014 which is yet to be released. Agricultural fields only in the
belt of 200 ft on both the sides of canal are benefitted. Villagers
inform that in absence of watershed development work, coping with summer
solely with canal irrigation was impossible.
Dimbhe Dam and its RBC share some more interesting dynamics with the
village. Gawadewadi has hosted more than 70 families which were
displaced because of Dimbhe Dam. Villagers point out that these families
are a classic example of how the displaced families often remain away
of benefits of the dam. The displaced families stay more than two KM
away from the RBC and have no access to water from RBC. They were given
land for land around 20 KM away from the houses that were built for them
in Gawadewadi. Many of them sold the lands given to them under
rehabilitation package as commuting was a problem. Problems of Dimbhe
dam that have interface with Gawadewadi may just be a tip of ice berg.
Even so these links with the government irrigation projects further
highlight the need for participatory and decentralized water
conservation.
Conclusion
Taking a close look at the development of Gawadewadi shows that the
essential element behind success was the active public participation.
This participation and ownership of the work resulted in completion of
soil and water conservation works on 1400 Ha of area when no funding was
available. This participation was also responsible for spurring of
other allied developmental initiatives in the village which almost took a
form of movement. Villagers voluntarily participated in various
training programmes and diversified their livelihood options, improved
farming practices, increased crop variety, increased milk production and
in turn increased their income. In this sense such eco-system based
works for conservation of natural resources like land and water become
‘active solutions’ as against the ‘passive solutions’ such as dams which
come at a tremendous social and environmental cost.
It is worth noting that over 40% of India’s under construction dams
are in Maharashtra. The state has spent about Rs 75000 crores over the
last decade and will need to spend about Rs 76000 crores to complete the
under construction projects[vi].
When Maharashtra is on such an irrigation spree, highlighting and
replicating stories like Gawadewadi which demonstrate success of small
scale solutions is definitely the need of the hour.
