By Ranjan K Panda

“Drought” and “Western Orissa” have almost become synonymous words. Known for its agricultural prosperity in the erstwhile Central Province, this region is now infamous for its parched reality of water scarcity, migration, starvation and all the woes attached to a ‘perennially drought-ridden’ society. In the last 100 years this belt has already had around 42 drought attacks, most of it coming after 1965. Large scale deforestation added with gross negligence of the Traditional Water Harvesting Practices/Systems has virtually brought the situation to this critical juncture. Most importantly the policy to fight ‘drought’ has always been that of ‘drought relief’ rather than ‘drought proofing’. This along with various other reasons has made the situation so critical that a ‘reversal’ looks almost impossible. This is more so because the ‘communities’ that were known for their powerful traditional knowledge systems and practices have themselves lost confidence. The ‘development’ models have also come as top-down ‘models’ and not as models that have been planned by the people keeping in view their local natural resources and the knowledge systems attached to these. It is time to give serious thought on these various aspects to see if a ‘permanent’ solution to ‘drought’ is to be searched.

The time has come to reconsider some traditional, sustainable, water-harvesting and management practices which hold the potential to change the future of millions of suffering poor in the resource-rich but poverty-ridden western districts of Orissa. Western Orissa has been a resource-rich region and also a region with a long history of good and sustainable practice to manage these resources. One can easily find that one of the prime reasons for increasing frequency of drought is the neglect of western Orissa's traditional water-harvesting structures. For example, just four decades ago, the drought-prone Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) districts, counted as one of the most backward zones in India, combated droughts successfully with a network of about 20,000 traditional tanks built with community participation. Given the undulating topography of the region, these tanks stored water that was later used during the dry months. So a failure in rainfall never caused drought. Of course, it might have been the cause of some scarcity of water.

Study Reveals the truth
A study for Balangir district finds that the district, with its good network of traditional water-harvesting structures, irrigated more than 52 per cent of its agricultural fields before 1950. However, at present, after spending crores of rupees (several hundred thousand US dollars) on modern irrigation projects, the district irrigates less than 6 per cent of its crop fields. The decay of these structures has taken a heavy toll. There is not an iota of doubt about it. It is a myth that failure of rain has made western Orissa a drought- prone zone. Rather, it is failure to understand the potential of these traditional marvels in combating drought and providing a sustainable livelihood support system to the poor and marginalised of this region. Take Kalahandi for example. Official records and reports of British travelers reveal that the first drought occurred there in 1898. They have also referred Kalahandi as the “mass of jungles and hills”. The vast degradation of forest resources and dying traditional water harvesting structures has given Kalahandi its present scenario of unbounded poverty and accompanying misery of the people. Despite the fact that it receives more rainfall than Punjab, the people live in penury. The average annual rainfall in Kalahandi is an unbelievable 1,200 mm. According earlier studiescovering the period 1977-1988, Kalahandi received an average of 1,255 mm rain annually. For seven years during this period, rainfall in Kalahandi was more than the state average, while only during five years it was less.

No failure of crops
According to the Final Land Revenue Settlement in Kalahandi district conducted between 1946-56, “during the last 20 years (1936-56) there was no failure of crops in Kalahandi except in 1938-39, 1945-46, 1946-47 and partial failure in 1947-48. There was, however, sufficient stock to meet the requirement of the people.” The western districts of Orissa have a very long tradition of indigenous natural resources management practices. The forests were very systematically maintained as sacred groves. Many exemplary systems of water management can be traced back to as early as 9th Century AD, when the Gonds, the principal tribe of Dravidian family, ruled the entire western section of the Central provinces together with a considerable area of Orissa. Under the Gond rulers, the agricultural prosperity of the country increased, and works like the great Rani Talao Reservoir near Jubbulpore remain to this day as monuments of their rule. An excellent practice of the Gond kings was to give any one who built a tank a grant of revenue-free land lying below it. Certain remissions of revenue were also granted for construction of tanks and other agricultural improvements. Hence, the Gond settlements were marked by the features of well-cultivated lands, carefully terraced and irrigated fields. Their engineering skills are evident from the reservoirs they built. Under the Gond rule the village headman was granted protected status. The Gonds propagated the Lakhbata system, which meant common ownership and management of land and water resources.

Drought and Irrigation: Need to Revert to the Tradition
In Orissa, the water-harvesting systems developed during the Gond period and other subsequent and parallel regimes were known to be socio-economically and ecologically suitable and sustainable models. The following irrigation systems and structures are common in western Orissa as a result of a great historical wisdom inherited from these regimes.

Bandh is a traditional pond that is usually located in the lower ridges. The water conserved is used for drinking and bathing purposes. Almost every village in western Orissa has its own bandh.

Munda is a semi-circular structure found on the upper ridges of a village just above the agricultural fields. It is used for percolation purposes and to retain the moisture level of the fields. Water running away from upper areas enters this structure and the semi-circular embankment stops it from running away. It resembles the johad and each village has anywhere between five to ten such structures.

Kata is a variation of the munda. It collects water from a larger catchment area. It has embankments on three sides. This is also used for percolation, but in case of rainfall failure, the embankment is breached for irrigation. In its catchment areas, farmers grow paddy and a second crop of pulses using the moisture content.

Chahala is a rectangular tank dug within a paddy field but without any embankment. This water is used when water is insufficient for irrigation.

Sagar is a structure measuring around eight hectares and situated just below hills and mountains. It catches rain water gushing from these hills. This is a community-owned structure and kings used to give incentives for their construction.

These systems were evolved keeping in mind the unique topography of the region. They were adopted for harvesting and managing rain water and were so skillfully designed that the sustainability factor in relation to ecology and biodiversity always got the prime emphasis. The uses of the water bodies were defined season-wise, and management terms and systems were framed in such a way as to benefit the largest possible number of people with existing resources at minimal costs. The methods of soil erosion control, wastage control, irrigation and so on were praiseworthy and showed the people’s engineering and managerial skills. Each village had its own way of managing but a commonality could be visualised, viewing at a macro level.

The decay of the sustainable tradition is unfortunate. Once viewed as quite sustainable institutions, these management structures have now become extinct. Hundreds of thousands of physical structures still exist in the western districts of Orissa but the modern irrigation system and agriculture based on high external inputs have slowly put aside these people’s sustainable eco-friendly systems. A two-phase historical erosion of this system can be visualised.

The course of history changed around 1750. Political instability, abolition of tribal authority and pursuit of more revenue caused a serious series of disturbances resulting in the decay of the traditional irrigation works. However, during the Gountia system in this part of Orissa, it was mandatory for the Gountias to construct tanks, kattas and mundas and look after their maintenance. However, the succeeding exploitative British rulers framed all policies with the sole objective of revenue maximisation, and hence these traditional systems and institutions governing them were not promoted.

The post-Independence phase was no different. The decline of traditional technology continued. Problems started as the ownership of these water bodies went to the Government and these were then handed over to the panchayats. In almost all the structures, unplanned pisciculture was taken up under various schemes like the ERRP and the IRDP. Virtually, the ponds were overused or misused by profit-making lobbies. Further, encroachment by the landless as well as influential people on the catchment areas has become another major problem. Large-scale deforestation has also been responsible in degrading these water resources.

Hope Amid Despair
Time has not slipped out of hand. Things can change for the better. An initiative has started in Orissa to revive the traditional sustainable structures and systems. The ‘Water Initiatives Orissa,’ a campaign promoted by Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti (MASS), a Sambalpur-based NGO, is encouraging people and organizations to promote ecological solutions to the perennial drought woes of this region. As a result, many people’s initiatives have already started with more likely to follow. The larger aim of this campaign is to drought-proof the western region of Orissa through grassroots action as well as advocacy efforts. The following case study shows how a small but strategic effort can drought-proof a village. The need is to recognize the potential of the people, regain their faith in themselves and in their traditional wisdom and revival of a sustainable ecological culture.

Padiabadmal – An example
Deep inside the forests lies the village of Padia Badmal, just 50 km away from the district headquarters of Sambalpur in Orissa. Development in government terms is yet to take off here, except for a small patch of concrete road inside the village, which looks a misfit against the kuchha houses. The villagers have to walk at least 13 kilometers to visit the Primary Health Centre and 3 kilometers to the primary school. Just 13 km from the National Highway 42 and the Block Headquarters of Jujumura, the village is inhabited by around 350 people, more than 80 per cent of whom are tribal. Electricity has not yet reached Padiabadmal. Traditionally dependent upon the forests, villagers only knew in the past how to eke out a livelihood from the forests and its resources. With the passing of time, the forests grew thinner year after year, resulting in a shift in livelihood patterns. Though the forest still provides the people with substantial livelihood options, agriculture, which is monsoon dependent, has now become the main occupation. However, in recent years most have abandoned agriculture because of the failure of monsoon rains and subsequent spells of drought. As the only kata (traditional water harvesting structure) in the village became defunct, drinking water also became scarce. In 1989, the government constructed a check dam at a cost of Rs.6 lakh. It was supposed to replenish the kata. But it became defunct immediately after the “completion” of construction. Repeated petitions to the administration gathered dust in bureaucratic offices. By the early 1990s, most of the villagers started migrating. They worked as farm laborers in irrigated villages of Hirakud Command Area, government sponsored programmes in faraway villages and building construction projects in Sambalpur.

In 2001, with the facilitation of Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti (MASS), a Sambalpur-based NGO, the villagers decided to chalk out plans for their own development. They began with informal meetings, which were followed by a systematic Participatory Rural Appraisal to understand the problems in their entirety. The villagers then chalked out several solution strategies depending on their capabilities and weaknesses, resources and hurdles. The entire village and its resources were mapped, and the older people were consulted about the traditional ways of managing these resources. At this point the villagers realized that some of the traditional practices could do wonders in fighting the woes of drought. The village map was drawn keeping in mind the movement of water during monsoon and the topography of the village. The people who had their lands at the immediate foothills had almost abandoned their uplands (mal jamin) due to heavy deposits of silt that flow each year from the gullies of the hills that surround the village on three sides. The local knowledge on soil type, possibilities of finding local materials combined with technical assistance provided by the engineer and staff of MASS helped them plan an integrated intervention plan. This included gully plugging to check soil erosion, developing land and its fertility through creation of suitable bunds and increasing vegetative cover in eroded areas.

Water being lifted from a Paenghara (Picture by Ranjan Panda)

The villagers also determined the amount of funds required for all interventions, after which the detailed plans and strategies were decided upon in a series of village meetings. In the meantime a Farmers Club (FC) called Brajeswari Krushak Club was formed with Nrusingha Charan Naik serving as President. The village women had already formed five Women’s Self Help Groups, also with the facilitation of MASS, and thus a high level of self confidence was already in the air. The Women’s Self-Help Groups have already put away a prestigious amount of savings (about one lakh – or 100,000 - rupees) and the members have begun investing in small businesses, most of which are forest and agriculture-based. The two people’s organisations gathered further strength due to the entire planning process. Then, began the implementation of the villager’s plans. People worked on their own fields as well as on others – some times with pay and sometimes without pay, as part of the Pancha system (a system of voluntary co-operative farming by neighbourhood families). A total of eleven Paengharas (small tanks to collect rainwater flowing down hill during rainy season) were first built along with other small treatments. Benudhar constructed one of these. On an average each Paenghara cost five to six thousand rupees. This combined with the voluntary brought total cost of the Paenghara construction alone to around 100,000 rupees. For example Benudhar built a Paenghara on half an acre for a total of around 10,000 rupees, out of which he contributed 3,000 of his own money plus his and his family’s voluntary labour. He irrigates four acres now. The chain of Paengharas, gully plugging at various points on the hill, and land development has already done wonders in a year’s time. The last rain was not good, otherwise the crop yield would have been much better, said Rasanand Kuanr, who built a 10 x 20 meter Paenghara at a cost of 6,000 rupees. Approximately 50 acres of land has been covered by the Paengharas through seepage irrigation. The kata has also been revived as part of the integrated plan that the villagers developed, but this is insufficient to meet their needs. Though the Kata holds four feet depth of water, so more than last year, but more funds are now required to make the pond still deeper. Only after the increased depth will we achieve the desired goal of drought-proofing our village, said, Kumudini Bhue. Chittaranjan Hota, Senior Programme officer of MASS, said, “…the institutional structure is ready, and development here has been on socio-economic and ecological fronts. We had abandoned multiple cropping and had to buy cereals and pulses. ‘This year we started by planting green gram (mung), horse gram (kultha) and biri (black gram); specific training in the use of bio-fertilizers has helped the villagers to go green again, and they have started thinking how to take this up in the coming years; some have already experimented and obtained good yields, explains Naik.

Saving Seeds!
One important intervention that the villagers made was to study the traditional drought- resistant seeds of paddy which earlier helped them to cope with drought years. We are not only studying but have started collecting the seeds, informs Naik. ‘We have created a seed bank which will cater to the need of the farmers during the sowing season.’ According to him, farmers will take the seed to sow and hence return with interest in the form of more seeds so that the Seed Bank will develop. In a few years we will not have to depend on external seeds and moneylenders. This is one way we plan to fight exploitation by the moneylenders who are normally also the fertilizer suppliers and who have gradually dragged them into the more water-consuming externally aided agriculture and drudgery. Migration to larger towns in search of daily-wage work has stopped, and if the intervention continues and we are successful with all our plans, then a few years from now our village will be an example in the entire district, says a confident Naik.

Through her self-composed song, Santi Majhi, an active member of one of the Self Help Groups, would always sing “Paenghara Jadu Kala, Aamku Jinbar Baat Dekhala,” meaning, “The miracle of Paenghara has shown us the way to live once again”.
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Ranjan Panda is Founder/Secretary, Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti (MASS) and Convenor, Water Initiatives, Orissa. His contact info is as follows: Postal Address : MASS, Dhanupali, Sambalpur 768 005, Orissa, INDIA. E-mail: ranjanpanda@yahoo.com, ranjanpanda@gmail.com. Tel : +91-663-2520962, 2404974, Fax: +91-663-2540936 (Attn: MASS)