Cynthia Rodrigues

Rural Communes, a voluntary organisation, has struck a chord with its bid to turn the clock back on environmental disaster in Maharashtra's Raigad district

In the monsoon it never just rains; it pours. In the summer all is dry and water comes in a tanker. This is the lot of villages and towns on Maharashtra's Konkan coast. This strip of land bordering the western ghats is blessed with over 2,500 mm of rain each year, enough to bury the place under 8 feet of water. But it all drains away into the sea and, in the summer, there is an acute water shortage. Either it comes to the village in a tanker or people walk miles to fetch it. No wonder the majority of the people move to Mumbai for work once the rice crop is harvested at the end of the monsoon.

Traditionally, the Konkan region has been Maharashtra's most fertile region. If you tickle the earth with a hoe, they say, she will laugh with a harvest. But indiscriminate felling of trees to procure wood for construction, firewood and charcoal has shorn the land of its verdure. Once perennial rivers now run dry within a month of the monsoon. The ecosystem was shattered to the point where a vicious cycle of floods in the monsoon and drought in the summer took over the region. Medicinal plants and trees were dying out.

That was when Rural Communes (RC), a voluntary organisation, decided that it would not stand and stare while a precious resource was being lost. It conducted a socio-economic survey of an area in Raigad district and found that people subsisted on a diet of rice, fish and crabs (which they caught themselves), were anaemic and malnourished. An acute scarcity of water had affected the community's lifestyle and health.

RC embarked on a comprehensive watershed development programme to turn back the clock. Supported in part by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, this programme was initiated in 6 villages and 24 hamlets. It involved soil and water conservation measures such as de-silting of village ponds, staggered trenching, reforestation and bund improvement. These measures contained the rainwater, helping it percolate into the ground. Today villagers in the area are assured of water throughout the year. Migration has fallen.

It was one man, Muneer Alawi, who started it all. He founded RC in 1977 in Khopoli, in Raigad district. He initiated a 'graduate volunteers scheme', which later evolved into a graduate course in rural development. Later, Mr Alawi started the 'village-level workers' training' (VLWT) programme. This one-year course is affiliated to Mumbai's SNDT University. Students spend five days every month learning theory; the other 25 days are spent in community activity, interacting with people and learning from their attitudes.

RC encouraged 15 landless families from the impoverished Katkari and Thakur tribes to lease land from the local Marathas and cultivate it. Thus began the concept of collective farming. Now there are 30 such groups in these villages, each of which cultivates rice during the monsoon and vegetables for the rest of the year. Thanks to the watershed programme, the water table has risen, enabling agriculture to flourish. One group, headed by Yashoda (an ex-VLWT student), picks 7-8 tonnes of tomatoes every day. Part of the yield is for self-consumption; the rest is sold in the nearby Pen market.

Yashoda is content. It has been 20 years since collective farming began. "Initially," she says, "we suffered because of price fluctuations and transport system losses. Now we have mastered the game." Yashoda's self-help group also runs a bank that offers loans for start-up enterprises.
At every stage it was the villagers who drove the movement forward. Says Mr Alawi: "We act only as a catalyst, guiding and motivating them." An elected panch committee makes the decisions and oversees implementation of the programmes.

No society can empower itself if it seeks to do so at the cost of its weaker sections. RC's strength is in its ability to make productive use of the skills of the women and the landless among the villagers. Self-help groups were formed to help women learn planning, management, accountancy, entrepreneurship, etc. They were also told about micro-savings and credit systems, collective vegetable farming, food processing and more.

RC has also launched what is known as the 'people's biodiversity register' (PBR), to study how the watershed programme affects local biodiversity. Carried out by the organisation's Vivek Gour-Broome and Sanjay Thakur with the help of the villagers, PBR contains details of more than 300 plants and animals.

Thus far the Chavni and Khandas villages have been covered by PBR. The register, placed at the panchayat office, is not just for documentation. Gour-Broome, who is a zoologist and a photographer, has shot more than 400 image's of Chavni's biodiversity: "The register will serve as evidence that all these plants are indigenous to Chavni," says Mr Gour-Broome. "India has already lost the patent on haldi because of lack of proof. This should not happen again."

Mr Gour-Broome is keen to provoke villagers into debates about biodiversity, and shows his slides in every village. He wants them to strive to preserve their way of life, and stand up to anything that threatens to destroy it. Aware that traditional medicine was dying due to lack of documentation, RC invited traditional vaids to reveal their knowledge of medicinal herbs and other compounds to the doctors and attendants at the local health centre, so that it may be preserved for future generations.

It has also reserved demarcated 'medicinal plant conservation areas'. Attempts are underway to cultivate traditional plants in these areas. Next is the 'forest home garden'. The idea is that everything needed for healthy living and sustainable development should grow around one's house. This includes medicines, building material, spices and foods. Over time, a nearly self-sufficient forest village is created.

Villagers in Amba Valley grow their own spices, mango, brinjal, chawli, tondli, karipatta, banana, papaya, jackfruit, etc. This way each family saves more than Rs 20,000 a year. Village youth are trained in making cane furniture, as well as utility items out of bamboo. Food processing and manufacturing agricultural tools are other skills taught.

RC is empowering the people of Raigad, helping them help themselves. The organisation's efforts are directed at ensuring that Raigad's glory does not lie only in its battle-worn past.

Uploaded on March 2005