Ecological Restoration of Sunderbans, India post Amphan 2020

The super cyclone AMPHAN 2020, has devastated the life in the world's largest delta in unprecedented ways affecting flora, fauna and people who live in and around. 

Hoffman Foundation, Switzerland has graciously granted me a grant to work on Ecological Restoration of Sunderbans, India for 2020-21.

The activities taken up are:

1. Erosion Map study of the delta coastline

2. Water salinity and soil testing of inland ponds

3. Paddy, fruit tree, vegetable cultivation for local empowerment

4. Mangrove plantation for better resilience

5. Ecological awareness among locals

 

We are in the last phase of the project with significant results in pond restoration reducing salinity to provide fresh water for locals as well as yield fish for livelihood. By the end of the project we would be able to achieve the initial implementation of plantation, pond restoration and most importantly creating food bank for locals.  

Bird Hospital delhi

GURGAON: Started three years ago, the Charity Birds Hospital, next to Jain Mandir in old city, has become a well-known name among citys nature lovers. The hospital has bridged the missing link by providing emergency services to birds which would not have survived had they been taken to any Delhi bird hospital for treatment in the formers absence.

In the past, city residents had to take injured birds all the way to Delhi for treatment and majority of the birds used to die on the way. This was the reason which prompted N C Jain, an ex-bank employee, to set up the hospital in a small property owned by the family with the help of a few friends.

Jain got full support from his friends who became the trusts members. Currently, the hospital is being run by 13 members who make monthly contributions. It also receives donations from nature lovers.

The sole bird hospital in the district provides free treatment and has since its inception treated over 3,000 birds, besides setting over 400 birds free after recovery. The most common birds which are brought to the hospitals are sparrows, parrots, domestic fowls and pigeons, and peacocks.

Jain informs that the hospital is set on the Jains principle of aversion to killing and standards set by the doctors of well-known Lal Mandir Bird Hospital near Red Fort in Delhi.

The Gurgaon hospital has one permanent attendant Raj Kumar and two doctors on call who pay periodic visits to the hospital. Kumar, who has earlier worked with Lal Mandir Hospital, is nothing less than a doctor and knows everything about birds.

Kumar says that the hospital sees around 10 outdoor patients daily. The birds generally suffer from paralysis due to electrocution or get injured by preying birds. Other ailments include eye infection, respiratory blockage and skin rashes.

Also, there are people who bring their pet birds for treatment. They are given advices on how to treat them at home, because as a rule, any bird which is admitted here once is not returned back, but is set free after they recover, informs Kumar.

Residents only have good words to say. Nadir Khan, a nature lover and a resident of Sector 57, who often take injured birds to the hospitals, says while one can find many veterinary hospitals in the city, the bird hospital is one of its kind and is doing a fabulous job.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Bird-hospital-treats-winged-visitors-and-sets-them-free/articleshow/11866804.cms

Jatindra Kaur - exceptional community work on Saras Crane

Conservation of the Vulnerable sarus crane Grus
antigone antigone in Kota, Rajasthan, India:
a case study of community involvement
Jatinder Kaur, Anil Nair and B.C. Choudhury
Abstract The sarus crane, a bird species characteristic of
wetlands, is categorized as vulnerable on the IUCN Red
List. In India, sarus cranes occur mostly outside protected
areas and use these unprotected areas for feeding and
breeding. They are consequently threatened by poaching
and the destruction of their eggs and juveniles. To protect
the crane’s habitat and nests a community education and
awareness campaign was carried out, using audiovisual
shows and presentations, in villages and schools in the
vicinity of sarus crane nesting sites in Kota district,
Rajasthan. In 2004–2005 protection of 22 nests by volunteer
Rural Village Sarus Protection Groups, formed as
a result of the campaign, resulted in the successful fledging
of 19 chicks, including some in the dry season. Our
experience with this project demonstrated that it is possible
to re-establish a bond between farmers and nature, and
work on community involvement for the sarus crane is
continuing, with the involvement of more districts in
Rajasthan.
Keywords Breeding, community conservation, Grus antigone
antigone, India, Kota, nesting, sarus crane.
Community conservation is considered an important
contemporary tool for nature conservation (Adams &
Hulme, 2001) but has mostly been implemented in and
around protected areas rather than for the conservation of
species occurring outside such areas. Here we present a case
study of community conservation in India for the sarus
crane Grus antigone antigone, which is categorized as
Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2007) and occurs
mostly in unprotected, wetland habitats. Although the
sarus crane is regarded as a wetland species (Meine &
Archibald, 1996; BirdLife International, 2001) it is increasingly
being forced into agricultural fields because of the
deterioration and destruction of its natural wetland habitat
(Mukherjee, 1999; Sundar et al., 2000; Sundar & Choudhury,
2003). In India there are some Community Conserved
Areas for particular species (Pathak & Kothari, 2006) but
the sarus crane, which is not restricted to a single village or
area, has not benefited from such schemes.
Kota district in Rajasthan has one of the largest reported
breeding populations of sarus cranes and is one of the few
places in India where the species can breed twice per year:
in the wet season (July–October) and the dry season
(February–May). This occurs because of the canalized
system of the River Chambal (Vyas, 1999a,b; J. Kaur,
unpubl. data; Fig. 1). The canal is used to deliver water to
the cooling plants of an electricity generation unit once
every 15 days during the summer, which results in water
flowing into the marshes along the canal. This causes the
cranes to attempt a second breeding period. In a study
during 1999–2002 disturbance by people was determined to
be the greatest cause of egg mortality, with nests destroyed
by children or removed by the itinerant labour force
(Sundar et al., 2000; Kaur & Choudhury, 2002, 2003a,b).
In addition, feral and unmanaged dogs hunt down prefledged
chicks (J. Kaur, pers. obs.). Reduction of breeding
success following the destruction of eggs or killing of chicks
could lead to local extinctions of slow-breeding species such
as the sarus crane.
Meine & Archibald (1996) suggested that wetland
conservation should be integrated into village-based education
and development programmes for preserving the
habitat of the sarus crane in India. In the arid landscape
of Rajasthan where water scarcity is a major concern, retention
of minimum water levels in wetlands, and protection
and management of these wetlands, are beneficial
both for the sarus crane and for the people living in close
proximity. Conservation action for the species is urgently
required, including education and community development
programmes (BirdLife International, 2001). Such
activities are important for the sarus crane because it
occurs mainly on private and community lands (Sundar
et al., 2000; Sundar & Choudhury, 2003). However, few
activities have been implemented to raise awareness of
the need to conserve the sarus cranes (Trivedi, 2007), and
no projects have previously been implemented to encourage
the participation of local people in sarus crane
conservation.
JATINDERKAUR (Corresponding author) 81, Shopping Centre, Kota, Rajasthan,
India. E-mail kaurjatinder@rediffmail.com
ANIL NAIR Hadothi Naturalist Society, 81, Shopping Centre, Kota, Rajasthan,
India.
B.C. CHOUDHURY Endangered Species Management Department, Wildlife
Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradhun, India.
Received 11 July 2006. Revision requested 4 October 2006.
Accepted 26 April 2007.
ª 2008 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 42(3), 452–455 doi:10.1017/S0030605308000215 Printed in the United Kingdom
In an attempt to increase the breeding success of the
cranes a preliminary education and awareness campaign
was carried out in Kota during 2000–2002 (Kaur &
Choudhury, 2003a). Farmers and villagers were approached
personally and made aware of the need to protect crane
nests, and printed postcards and pamphlets about the
cranes were distributed in the community. Villagers and
farmers were instrumental in protecting adult sarus cranes
from poaching and were responsible for the successful
fledging of a total of 19 hatchlings from 22 nests during the
wet seasons of 2000 and 2001 (Table 1) but none during the
dry season.
TABLE 1 Numbers of sarus crane nests monitored and chicks successfully fledged during the wet and dry seasons of 2000 and 2001,
the wet season of 2004 and the dry season of 2005. The total of 22 nests monitored in 2004–2005 included some of the same nests as in
2000–2001.
Year Months (season)
No. of nests
monitored
No. of chicks
successfully fledged
2000 Jul.–Oct. (wet) 19 2
Feb.–May (dry) 7 0
2001 Jul.–Oct. (wet) 21 17
Feb.–May (dry) 3 0
Total 22 19
2004 Jul.–Oct. (wet) 16 13
2005 Feb.–May (dry) 6 7
Total 22 19
FIG. 1 Locations of nesting sarus cranes in the study area in Kota district, Rajasthan, India (some points represent more than one nest).
Nesting sites along natural wetlands are 1L (Lakawa), 2R (Ranpur), 3K (Kalatalab), 4H (Haripura) and 5KA (Keshoraipatan) and, along
the canal, 1UC (Ummedganj-Dad Devi), 2U (Ummedganj-K. Palace), 3UA-3UB (Ummedganj-Overflow-I, II), 4U (Ummedganj-
Sursagar), 3SA-SB (Sorsan-Dabur, Railgaon-I), 2SB (Sorsan-Railgaon-II), 2SA (Sorsan-Janakpur) and 6SA (Sorsan-Amalsara).
Conservation of the sarus crane 453
ª 2008 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 42(3), 452–455
Building on the work carried out in 2000–2002 (Kaur &
Choudhury, 2003a) we carried out further work in the same
area in Kota from July 2004 to May 2005. Our aims were to
conduct a more thorough awareness campaign for the sarus
crane, with the involvement of local communities and
NGOs, and to assess the impact of the campaign. Field
visits to important sarus crane breeding sites were made
every week during the breeding season. One thousand
colour pamphlets and 500 postcards in local languages were
printed for distribution in schools and villages. The
pamphlets and postcards helped us obtain information
from people about sarus crane nesting sites and juveniles,
and reached people via their children in school or via
friends and neighbours. People provided information by
letter, phone, and in personal visits. The use of such printed
postcards and pamphlets can be effective in gathering
information from a wide area and from people who cannot
be reached directly by any other means.
Audiovisual shows and lectures on the sarus crane,
including a short documentary film explaining the breeding
period, habitat, and development of the chicks, were
undertaken with local NGOs (Table 2). The shows helped
to dispel misconceptions regarding the crane’s supposed
destruction of crops, showed that its eggshells are ineffective
for various health problems, increased people’s
knowledge of the species’ breeding biology, and demonstrated
the importance of the surrounding wetlands for the
species. A quiz competition was conducted after the shows,
and prizes were given to the winners. Schoolchildren living
near breeding sites were taken to nesting sites (Table 2) and
shown how to protect the nests and the chicks. To
minimize the threat of nests being destroyed by farmers,
letters were presented to the landowners of seven sites
where sarus cranes were breeding, requesting the landowners
to protect the cranes’ nests.
During the project we decided it was necessary to erect
sign boards in important crane breeding sites to appeal to
people whom we could not contact directly. A local school
teacher volunteered to paint walls and sign boards. An
interpretation board was installed at Ummedganj, a key
breeding site for the sarus crane on the main canal of the
river Chambal, and a painting was made at Janakpur on the
outside wall of a house, and another at the Government
Upper Primary School, Amalsara. Both these sites are
situated on the way to the Great Indian Bustard Protected
Area close to the canal. These paintings had information on
the nesting of sarus cranes, information about the bird
being farmer-friendly because it eats insects, that use of the
bird’s eggshell as medicine is harmful, and requesting
further information regarding the sarus crane, with contact
details of the researchers.
These interpretation boards and wall paintings were
helpful in soliciting more information from villagers on an
additional seven, previously unknown, sites comprising 23
adult and five juvenile sarus cranes. This simple method
could be used as an effective model for gaining information
on other species outside protected areas.
Sarus crane nests were monitored along the irrigation
canal system in and around Kota city. During the field visits
and awareness programmes villagers voluntarily came forward
to form a total of 17 Rural Village Sarus Protection
Groups. The responsibilities the Groups took on were the
protection of eggs and juveniles from poaching and predation,
and to ensure that during the nesting seasons
the ponds and wetlands used by the sarus cranes were
not disturbed. A total of 19 chicks successfully fledged from
22 nests in 2004-2005, including some in the dry season
(Table 1).
Although many individuals were helpful during the
crane nesting period, nine people made outstanding
TABLE 2 The six villages in which people participated in the lectures and slide and film shows, with the approximate number of people
participating, and the seven schools where slide and film shows were presented, with the numbers of students and teachers attending and
the number of children that were subsequently taken to sarus crane breeding sites.
Village (and school)
No. of
people
No. of
students
No. of
teachers
No. of students
taken to
breeding sites
Ummedganj (and Upper Primary School) 80 60 5 35
Rankyakhedi (and Primary School) 50 65 1 0
Simliya Senior Secondary School 200 26 50
Raipura Emmanuel School and Orphanage 100 3 0
Amalsara Upper Primary School 40 2 30
Lakhava (and Primary School) 40 40 2 25
Mawasa Upper Primary School 55 4 30
Zetiya 30
Amalsara 50
Janakpur 50
Total 300 560 43 170
454 J. Kaur et al.
ª 2008 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 42(3), 452–455
contributions. Following suggestions from national and
local NGOs these enthusiasts were honoured with certificates
and a bird identification book in the local language
from the Indian Bird Conservation Network, Bombay
Natural History Society, and the Indian Cranes and Wetlands
Working Group. Local and national media highlighted
the efforts of these volunteers (Anon., 2005;
Phatarphekar, 2006), and journalists were taken to the
breeding areas to learn about the work and meet the
villagers whose efforts were helping to conserve the crane.
The stories in the media motivated more people to come
forward to provide information on sarus cranes from other
sites.
Education is a vital part of any attempt to enforce legal
protection for the sarus crane (Davis, 1998), and for the
long-term conservation of the species outside protected
areas more community protection groups and education
and awareness programmes will be required in other
breeding areas. Development of an active network of
farmers, village communities and NGOs will facilitate
improved conservation of the species. Our experience with
this project demonstrated that it is possible to re-establish
a bond between farmers and nature, and work on community
involvement for the sarus crane is continuing, with the
involvement of more districts in Rajasthan.

Few good tips to learn on blending forest dwellers with forest conservation

We seek to change the negative relationship between herders and snow leopards in rural Mongolia. Snow leopards are an endangered big cat and important apex predator throughout Central Asia. Mongolia is home to the second largest population of snow leopards in the world, concentrated in rural area dominated by herding families. These families live below the poverty line and rely heavily on raising livestock. They come into conflict with the cats over livestock depredation, which causes severe economic hardship that fuels poaching and retribution killing of snow leopards. To change this relationship, our project helps herders increase their income from raising livestock in conservation-friendly ways linked directly to protecting snow leopards.

Some guidelines:

i. Leopards often take up residence in croplands and tea-gardens.
ii. They are not usually inclined to attack people; on the contrary, they avoid
people.
iii. Wild carnivores may attack in self-defence, and, therefore, it is advisable to
avoid provoking them.
iv. Mere sighting of a leopard in the vicinity of human habitations does not
necessarily mean that the animal has strayed from a forest and needs to be
captured.
v. Arbitrary removal of leopards could lead to increased confl ict. The space vacated
by a captured animal will soon be occupied by another leopard.
vi. The focus should be on long term solutions. These include better sanitation
measures including proper garbage disposal in villages and towns so that
feral pig and dog populations are kept under check, and do not attract wild
carnivores. Providing proper toilet facilities in rural areas would go a long way
in reducing incidences of accidental encounters with leopards.
vii. Farmers should be made aware that livestock sheds should be strong, robust
and leopard proof.

Few good tips: Drought Insurance

In the United States, insurance against extreme weather is seen as so important that Washington subsidizes it highly and requires it for farmers who want other government benefits. If American farmers need weather insurance, African peasant farmers need it even more. But the vast majority of African peasant farmers have no opportunity to insure their crops.

Virtually all small farmers in Africa depend on rain for irrigation. Most have no safety net — a farmer planting an acre of corn twice a year can find her family nearly destitute if the crop fails because of drought early in the planting season, or too much rain later on. She will have invested everything she has in seeds and fertilizer. There will be nothing left for the next planting season.

Farming an acre of grain with nothing more than a strong back and a hoe has always been precarious, but now more so than ever, because of climate change. A report from the International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that grain crop yields in Africa will shrink substantially by 2050, there will be 10 million more malnourished children than there are today and Africans on average will be eating 21 percent fewer calories than they do today. Small farmers around the world need many different things to help them survive climate change: seeds resistant to extreme weather and pests, cheap irrigation systems, and better agricultural infrastructure, such as more feeder roads. But one thing that can help small farmers now is insurance.
Insurance allows farmers affected by droughts, such this one in Nanyuki in 2009, to used payouts to buy new certifieds seeds to plant her crop again.Syngenta FoundationIn Africa, where crops are often destroyed by drought, insurance can help recover losses. A farmer in Nanyuki Kenya in 2009 surveyed a dried out water pan.

The insecurity of farming sabotages yields even when the weather is good. Because of the risk, many farmers are unwilling to bet all their money on a crop, so they sow only a portion of their land. Or they use poor quality seeds because they do not want to increase their risks by spending more. Risk makes it very difficult for farmers to get credit to buy needed seeds, fertilizer, herbicides or insecticides, so their yields are stunted. These are people who can ill afford to get less than the maximum from their plots.

Weather insurance for small farmers has always faced numerous barriers. But throughout east Africa today there are projects finding creative and innovative ways to overcome them. One of them is a project in Kenya’s southwest that so far insures 22,000 farmers. There are so few farmers with insurance in Africa that this project is the continent’s largest. It is called Kilimo Salama, which means “safe farming” in Swahili. What makes it work is technology.

Insurance companies have never been interested in microinsurance because the transaction costs are too high. A farmer who wants to insure two bags of seeds — a $10 investment — may be paying an insurance premium of a dollar. If there’s drought, someone will have to visit the farm to verify the farmer’s loss. The company has to do the paperwork to be able to give the farmer her payout of $10. The insurer’s expense is the same for a $10 policy as it is for a $10,000 policy — too much for only one dollar in earnings. Writing tiny policies is only feasible if the process of signing people up, verifying claims and making payouts is nearly free.

But there are also obstacles from the farmers’ side. Even that dollar’s worth of insurance may be too expensive for many farmers. Insurance also has a bad name. If small farmers in Africa have heard of insurance — and many haven’t — it’s usually because they know someone who was cheated when a company went bankrupt, an agent ran off with the money, or a middleman stole a payout before it reached the farmer.

Kilimo Salama made its debut as a pilot project in 2009, insuring 200 corn farmers in the region of Nanyuki. Now it is spreading, and covering wheat, sorghum, cotton, beans and coffee in addition to corn. It is a project of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, which does research on improving harvests on small farms. The non-profit foundation is financed by the Swiss agri-giant Syngenta. Kilimo Salama also gets money from the International Finance Corporation, a sister organization of the World Bank.
A weather stations, like this one in Matanya, Kenya, with solar power and computerized gauges send out data on rainfall levels, sun and temperature every 15 minutes.Syngenta Foundation Weather stations like this one in Matanya, Kenya, use solar power and computerized gauges to send out data on rainfall levels, sun and temperature every 15 minutes.

Kilimo Salama relies on two kinds of technology to reduce transaction costs and build trust with clients. The first is solar-powered weather stations. For decades, Kenya has been dotted with weather stations employing manual rain gauges. Kilimo Salama has modernized 32 of them with solar power and computerized gauges that send out data on rainfall levels, sun and temperature every 15 minutes.

Each farmer who buys insurance is linked to the nearest weather station — no one is more than 20 kilometers from a station. If the weather station shows that the rainfall was insufficient early in the growing season, or too much late in the corn season, all the farmers in that area get an automatic payout — farmers do not have to file a claim. If the rainfall was only slightly off, farmers get a small payment. If the weather was extreme enough to destroy their whole harvest, they get the full amount. No farm visits are necessary. (With corn and the other crops that Kilimo Salama insures, historical data show that payouts using weather as an index are about the same as payouts for actual crop damage from weather.)

Just as important is what Kilimo Salama uses to sign up farmers and pay out claims: cell phones. Instead of relying on insurance agents, Kilimo Salama’s insurer — the Kenyan insurance company UAP — sells policies in the same stores where farmers buy their seeds, fertilizers and chemicals. The shop owner is given a camera phone to record the purchase, which instantly sends a confirmation text message to the buyer. At the end of the growing season, payouts go electronically to the farmer’s cell phone account.

It is remarkable that even for small farmers, text messaging and online banking are old friends that provide a comfort level with a new program. But these are now routine in Kenya. More than three quarters of all Kenyans have cell phones or have access to one. With a system called M-PESA (Swahili for mobile money), operated by Kenya’s largest cell phone service provider, Safaricom, Kenyans use their cell phones to send and receive money. Some use it for all their shopping. Kenya has 10 million households and 14 million M-PESA accounts. “I’ll M-PESA you” has become as common a phrase in Kenya as “I’ll Google it” is in the United States. These accounts now hold 40 percent of the country’s savings.
Related
More From Fixes

Read previous contributions to this series.

M-PESA’s popularity was why Rose Goslinga, Kilimo Salama’s founder, chose Kenya. The weather stations and cell phones have lowered the cost of writing policies to the point where Goslinga says the biggest cost is sending the text message welcoming the new client.

Kilimo Salama has recruited partners who will pay half the cost of the premium if farmers buy their products. One of them is Syngenta — a mixture of the philanthropic with the commercial that makes some others who work on this issue uneasy. But it’s obvious why the program uses partners, as paying the full 10 percent of their costs for insurance is still too much for many farmers.

Insurance may drift even further out of reach as it becomes more necessary. The years of weather data that re-insurers need to price risk will be less relevant to a changing climate, so they are likely to demand higher premiums. And of course, crops will fail more often. “It is becoming more expensive to insure as climate change progresses,” said Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, an associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation who works on climate change resilience. “But the more people you have insured and the more you can spread the risk the better.”

The main obstacle to insuring farmers, said Goslinga, is that if they have heard of insurance, they don’t trust it. “You’re selling a promise,” she said. So Kilimo Salama built in various mechanisms to win farmers’ trust. Having agro-dealers sell policies means farmers have a familiar person to contact if a problem arises. Kilimo Salama starts its policies very small — farmers can insure a single bag of seeds or their whole harvest — to allow farmers to try out the idea before investing a lot of money in it. Using M-PESA means farmers know their payment will not get stolen. “If you are developing a new product, you want as little as possible to be new,” Goslinga said. “You want the other parts to be known and trusted.”
Right to left, Rose Goslinga, an Agricultural Insurance Initiative Coordinator of the Syngenta Foundation, with Erastus Ndege, a Syngenta program officer, show an agro dealer, Jane Kimanthi, and a shop assistant how to use cellphone to sell crop insurance in Timau, Kenya.Fritz Brugger/Syngenta FoundationFrom right, Rose Goslinga, Kilimo Salama’s founder, with Erastus Ndege, a Syngenta program officer, showed an agro-dealer, Jane Kimanthi, and a shop assistant how to use a cell phone to sell crop insurance in Timau, Kenya.

Selling farmers on the idea of insurance is labor-intensive. Forty percent of the project’s budget goes to pay for trainers who work with farmers, a telephone help line and radio programs about insurance. Kilimo Salama expects that this expense will drop as the product becomes more familiar. It aims to be commercially viable in three years.

Perhaps the most effective form of persuasion is allowing farmers to see that the insurance works. Joseph Ndungu farms a bit more than an acre of corn in Laikipia county. He is adventurous; when Kilimo Salama approached him to be among the first farmers to get insurance, he readily agreed. “I had not heard of insurance, but I agreed to it because this area is a bit dry,” he said. It was a good bet. The first year, Kilimo Salama gave the insurance away to farmers who bought four bags of seeds — a $20 expense. When the rains failed, Ndungu got $16 back. “We got the payout, and it was correct,” he said. That convinced his neighbors, who bought insurance for their next planting. This is Ndungu’s fourth planting insuring his seeds.

Lucy Muriuki sells farming products in the town of Nanyuki, and was one of the first two agro-dealers to offer Kilimo Salama. “When I first talked to them about insurance, the farmers thought it was a joke,” she said. “But now 80 percent of the farmers who walk into my shop ask for it.”

As cell phone and mobile money penetration deepens in Africa — and this is happening stunningly fast — the possible reach of insurance products like Kilimo Salama will widen. Goslinga is talking to people in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda about setting up weather insurance as the technology progresses. But any product that costs money — even 50 cents — cannot work for the poorest and most vulnerable farmers; if they have 50 cents, they will spend it on food. How can insurance work for the farmers who need it most?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/doing-more-than-praying-for-rain/?nl=opinion&emc=tya1

A 73-year-old who saves rainwater and jungles

Growing up in Bero, a tiny village situated 30 km from Ranchi, Simon Oraon realised that irrigation water was what his native Chhotangapur region needed the most.

The septuagenarian, therefore, spent most of his life mobilising villagers to build dams and ponds. He has also planted thousands of trees to regain forest cover.

While Oraon’s family owned eight acres of fallow land, he grew up seeing his relatives grow a monocrop of paddy for want of water. The forest cover was lost to felling of trees by the timber mafia. In the post-monsoon period, most villagers migrated to distant areas in search of jobs, leaving behind the old and infirm to fend for themselves. And when sometimes the monsoon failed, drought caused hunger and even death.

Soon after leaving school as a Class IV dropout in 1961, Oraon wanted to set things right. “I felt compelled to resolve the problems of deforestation and water crisis,” said the farmer, now 73.

During the rains, Oraon walked miles in the opposite direction of the streams’ flow to trace their origin. Once there, he mapped the contour of the rainwater falling from top of the hills . “In the undulating terrain, water gushed out creating ravines. I thought if a dam is built somewhere near the foothills, that water can be blocked and used for irrigation with the use of canals on the plains,” said Oraon.

Soon, with the help of fellow villagers, he constructed the first dam of earth near Gaighat in Bero in 1961. The dam, however, caved in next monsoon. Undeterred, he reconstructed the dam. This time too, it failed to withstand the strong current of water. The third time the state water resource department intervened and increased its height and width. “This worked. So much so that the dam has not developed any crack till date,” said Oraon.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-73yearold-who-saves-rainwater-and-jungles/719667/

KHANGCHENDZONGA CONSERVATION COMMITTEE (KCC)

Humble Beginnings
Yuksam, a small hamlet in west Sikkim, has long been a popular base for trekkers and nature lovers up to Dzongri (4030m), Goecha-La (5002m) near Mt Khangchendzonga, the world's third highest mountain at (8586m). These treks also offer panoramic views of other snow-capped mountains such as Mt. Pandim, Mt. Kabur and Mt Narsing. Together with the area's heterogeneity in culture and tradition, rich biodiversity, scenic beauty and historic religious places like Norbu Gang and Dubdi Monastery, this area has become an attractive place for tourists.

Over time, this previously remote area of Sikkim gained prominence as tourism developed rapidly and the Indian government started to promote tourism in this part of the country.

As more and more visitors came to the area, the different impacts of tourism became visible. The pressure on the surrounding resources increased, more infrastructure demand led to depletion of the surrounding forests, garbage and litter began to be a problem in the trekking trails and campsites and different conflicts related with tourism began to manifest in their area.

There was a growing concern amongst the local community to do something to mitigate the various impacts of tourism and conserve the resources that attracted visitors to this area. Out of this shared concern, different stakeholders from the community came under one banner in the name of Khangchendzonga Conservation Committee (KCC).

Initial activities at the grass root level started from the beginning of 1996. Soon after, we were formally registered and recognized by the Government of Sikkim on 19th February 1997.

Who is in the KCC?
KCC is a community-based organisation in Yuksam, West Sikkim. This means that the organisation comprises representatives of the community (e.g. village heads) and stakeholders in tourism enterprises (such as hotels) who work together to

* Mitigate the negative impacts of tourism,
* Conserve natural and cultural resources,
* Provide training to community stakeholders,
* Educate visitors,
* Monitor resources, and
* Advocate for appropriate policy changes.