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CARE TODAY
FIGHT THE DROUGHT
REPLENISHING LIVES
Care
Today spends Rs 3.7 lakh on a multi-pronged project in a village in Rajasthan,
aimed at protecting fodder and food stocks and assuring a dependable water
supply
Ninety kilometres
from Bikaner, in Lunkaransar block, is Dhani Bopalaram, a small village
of 80 households, on land that is mostly barren and drought-prone. Successive
droughts and over-exploitation of natural resources had destroyed this
village's self-sufficient economy. Earlier this year, when the drought
hit the village hard for the second consecutive year, the villagers decided
they desperately needed to work out some drought-fighting mechanism. They
petitioned Urmul Setu, a local NGO, for help. Urmul, in turn, got in touch
with Care Today. Both organisations worked out a concrete multi-pronged
approach aimed at providing employment to the poorest, strengthening water
harvesting and storage systems, saving fodder for hard times and starting
a grain bank. This composite project cost Care Today a sum of Rs 3.7 lakh.
Most of
these plans have taken shape now. Dhani Bopalaram had faced a peculiar
problem this time. The drought resulted in unavailability of fodder. A
few hundred died before the monsoons came and a few hundred more fell
prey to the incessant rains in July. The problem area identified in this
regard was excess grazing in the gochar-the common grazing ground. Past
attempts to fence it had failed due to lack of funds. So Care Today provided
Rs 1.02 lakh for 7,000 ft of fencing around the gochar. With the job complete,
villagers can now regulate grazing. To save the gochar for future hard
times they make their livestock graze outside the fenced area. Regulated
grazing also ensures sufficient time for the grass to regenerate. "This
grass will be enough for 2,500 of our animals for two months," says
Sita Ram, an old villager.
One of the
sources of water for the village's livestock, a huge, permanent man-made
pond constructed by Urmul in 1987-88, was found to be in a bad shape.
It needed desiltation and plastering of its walls along the catchment
area to prolong water storage. Care Today spent Rs 1.02 lakh to get this
done. Villagers now say that once the tank fills up to the brim it is
likely to retain water for months altogether. Besides this, the village
had an old covered tank to store rain water for drinking and a government-built
reservoir. Cracks had developed in both the tanks and they were lying
unused. Care Today sanctioned Rs 60,100 for the old tank and Rs 7,500
for the government one. Work on both nears completion. When repaired,
the tanks will go a long way in meeting Dhani Bopalaram's drinking water
requirements whenever government supply falls short.
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The
Indian industry has increased its decibel level of whining. Instead, it
should get the government to deliver, says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor
V. Shankar Aiyar in 
