Desert blooms

The Old Testament clearly states that the earth is the creation of ``the lord’s he has founded it on the sea and established it on the rivers’’. Our planet earth is known as the ``watery planet’’. Yet in many parts of the world, pure water is becoming increasingly difficult to get. People have started fighting over rivers waters. They are even fighting at street taps! What was once farmland is becoming desert?

That is the reality now for a famer living at the edges of the Gobi Desert. Every year, the desert moves closer to his village. Sand has taken over the fields. ``we used to grow wheat, corn and pepper’’, he says. ``now there is no field, only desert. We have to move to the city to find work’’. There are hundreds like him. The Gobi Desert is gobbling up one thousand square miles of farmland every year. Soon the whole of north-west China could become a vast dust bowl. All this is happening mainly because trees have been cut down and ground water has been overused.

We can learn from the people of Alwar. Who used local wisdom to transform what was once a dry wasteland into a fertile green land. Alwar district is in the north – eastern part of Rajasthan, nestling in the Aravalli hills. Long ago, this whole area was forests land. Steadily the trees were cut down to make farmland. Rain water was allowed to run waste. Gradually the streams dried up, and the place became a wasteland. About twenty years ago, the people of Alwar decided to do something to solve the problem. With the help of a voluntary agency, they built earthen check – dams called johads, to trap the water during the monsoon rains. Their slogan was johad banao, paani bacho.

It worked. The revival of johads has recharged groundwater and the tree plantation drive has helped green the area. There is now plenty of water for irrigation and domestic purposes. The farmers today harvest up to three crops a year. It has now become a model for rest of India to follow. The desert has bloomed.

The people of Alwar have proved that answers to most environmental problems lie in using traditional wisdom coupled with social mobilization and technological knowledge.