Enhancing landscape resilience for drought hit semi arid region Vidarbha Maharashtra

Abstract

The manifestation of extreme weather conditions is not a new challenge. Mechanism to tackle drought risk and adjust livelihood practices has been evident in research in semi-arid region of Vidarbha, Maharashtra. Vidarbha region in Maharashtra has continued to be in the news over the years because of its severe agrarian crisis with reports of severe droughts, loss of crops and increasing farmer suicides. Agricultural crisis is subjected the pressure of the growing economy as well as climate change. The central region of state receives a rainfall of 300 to 700mm annually. The one reason being the geography of the region as it lies on the leeward side of western ghats but the other reasons are human interfered activities such as over exploitation through bore wells, pumps, agriculture, over grazing, deforestation, industries and wrong cultivation methods. The recent times have seen the region being declared as drought prone area several times in last two decades. This has led to the governments and private NGOs in taking actions against the problem as it is also affecting the economy adversely. The report by CGWB, Nagpur has termed the over exploitation of water as „‟water mining‟‟ which needs to be addressed immediately. The positive rays of hopes were seen when some village communities show the desirable changes in the landscape. Few examples such as Hiware bazar, Ralegan siddhi, Pirewadi ,Purushwadi etc emerged out of the problem with simple and sustainable water solutions for the entire community But is it fair to blame climate change when the anthropogenic reasons for the disasters haven’t been addressed? The agriculture landscape and its characteristics undergo a parallel natural and human-induced phenomenon. In such a case, the thin line of sensitivity and caution is often breached caused catastrophic impacts. Such is the case of Yavatmal district, where drought is a complex natural hazard with severe environmental and socio-economic impacts. The thesis aims at exploring the indicators of drought and its impacts. With the principal purpose of enhancing the landscape ‘resilience’ of natural environment of Rajani village in order to ensure a thriving natural environment for the benefit of the people. As a landscape architect my effort was to work upon this problem and search for more sustainable and planned solutions based upon my field of knowledge and to cater the solutions to the affected community. The proposal site was one similar example which could be replicated anywhere in the similar geographical and climatic conditions. Located in the district of Yavatmal, the site taken for study was a macro watershed with several micro watersheds into it. Efforts were made to understand the taken landscape with its issues and suitable solution on planning level were made. People of local village need to take voluntary participation in such projects as they are the first one to get the benefits. A mass awareness with demonstrating sites can be helpful for this purpose.