Finding the best use for degraded lands in western India Essay

This research radical takes into account assorted approaches for the use of totals and services of land in the Western Ghats situated on the west coast of India. primary of all told we bequeath discriminate how this research forget use the information that is coming ahead in rove to decide which approach should be taken into account. This needs answers and justifications that trace an alternative better then the new(prenominal)s. Whatever alternative me take upon, source thing first of all, we need to analyze and enlist twain the negative and substantiating points separately so that we argon in a better stake in order to exercise a decision on the behalf of the inherent community.Then we need to square off weather the alternative that is be implied is price efficient which means that weather the cost incurred on the implementation of the political program does generate benefit to the community at the same magnitude (Prasad, 2002). A cost benefit analysis is t o be dont in order to see weather the investment on such a programme is near or is a virtuous waste of specie be ca-ca at this situation, both the wad and the giving medication understructure non take any find regarding any such relief programme for which people lose been postponement for so long.In continuation to this approach, people of this reach are anticipating a long-term etymon to their urine shortage problem, they want their problem to be solved in the same tenure of the g bothplacenment, without any further metre lags, and in addition they want a ascendant that they flush toilet run themselves flush after the administration changes. This is because a system being in that respect and not having adequate imagerys or authentication to operate is just a mere waste of money and no use to the inhabitants of this village. (Prasad, 2002).The approach that we select by means of this research paper should be focused on more than educate cultivation by the fa rmers of this discipline so that they sess earn more revenue out of it and hence improve their standard of living. (Prasad, 2002) The force knit that has been discussed in this research paper is the eastern flank of the Western Ghats in Mahrashtara, India. This area spreads over 180000sq kilometers and is one of the 34 global biologically diversified places. With 30% of all the mammals, broadcastts, fishes and birds in the entire country, the land single comprises of 6% of the derive area of the country.This area h experienceds great significance cod to its richness in different type of medical that are used in ergonomics research methods and different medicines that we use daily. (Verne, 1999) The area is withal known to be one of the richest due to its biodiversity. Moreover this area is similarly known for having centuries old heritage, values, culture and norms that are still practiced widely among the villagers. a gradient from biodiversity, the area has some rich cu ltural and religious backgrounds which make them stand in the league of highly diverse cultures.They have different rituals norms and values which had direct to the creation of separate religious sections which in turn affects decision make at the personal level and hence on the political front. Although, different cultures have brought diversity into the area, the main point over here is to maintain them work together so the natural habitat for the endangered species can be saved and the area could be developed in order to protect the biodiversity of the area. (Bull, 2006)The social condition of the area is pathetic as the government officials are notoriously s down in the mouth in providing the basic services motleyred clean urine, schools, hospitals, banks and other recreational services. Lack of the basic amenities of behavior makes living of the topical anesthetics tough which in turn slows down(p) the sparing progress of the area. (Bonelle, 2005) Analyzing the topo graphical situation of the, the area has a rough terrain. It receives one-year rainfall of approximately 200-600mm. The rain fall has cycles which vary between two or three months and normally occur between the pointedness of June and September.Lack of piss storage facilities makes peeing system a scarce resource because all of its gets dried up in the extreme weather of may and June so there is a dire need of conservation of water supply. (Bull, 2006) The horticulture sector consists of rice as the only cash crop of this area which is cultivated in the mon presently season starting from June to September. Other crops like grains and pulses are grown after the cash crop is harvested. The fate of the growth of other crops depends on the flaw fertility of the left over soil (after being used for dinero welt).Dearth of water coerces farmers to apply expensive fertilizers to advance soil conceptive but they are unable to use them due to their exorbitant costs. In turn, the se poor farmers have to settle for low tone natural fertilizers like dead leaves, ashes and cow dung which are procured from abutting areas including other villages and topical anaestheticities. (Verne, 1999) There are three options or alternatives we have to render to improve the situation of the local inhabitants by lessening their problems and improving their new state of affairs. The alternatives are 1.A water underground line to be do in association with the sugar cane mill so cane could be grown in the area. This solution is not a unanimous one but it is suggested by the local politicians who represent the rule and federal government. In this way the cultivated sugar cane go forth earn a work forceome amount of revenue to the local state testament bring in water from far flung areas and will also serve the solicit of sugar mill. In the long term, it will describe investment for other mills to be set up in the area which would bring in prosperity in the region as it will create more jobs in the area.2. Best practices to be choose from neighboring areas such as Aloke Taluka. Copying the solutions applied to similar problems in other areas shall be beneficial as it would made the conditions of local better, both economically and financially. 3. Lastly, what we can do is just to leave the plan as it is and look for a better venture because no other solution seems to be viable for a problem of this nature. Tackling the last problem first, if no heed is paid to the current problem, it would not harm the county itself except to the cause of biodiversity conservation.These Western Ghats have inhabitants of around 400 500 households only which not even contribute to a single percent in the gross domestic help product of the country. If we just look it from a different prism, we see that there are other plentifulness of issues left to be dealt with so savings mammals and other endangered species is a honest idea but not on the expense of alread y deprived humans who are dying due to insufficient calorie intake and earn less than 1$ a day which does not satisfy their daily needs. We all are cognizant of the fact that more than half of Indias come out of the closetulation lives below the beggary line and have no nutritious food at their disposal.(Lewis, 2004) Apart from this all, doing nothing on providing water to the region, it would serve as a repulse factor for villagers to leave this place and migrate to cities where they can earn best living and can live happily. Global warming is also playacting its role as the amount of rain fall is has decr looseningd over the time and the future seems to be bleak too as there would hardly be any sufficient rainfall in days to come. (Lewis, 2004). Secondly, copying the viable and practical practices adopted by Aloke Taluka village is something worth to ponder on.The topography of both the villages is more or less the same so the experience gained in one area will certainly moment us out in making strategies on the other area. It would make us analyze and learn what their residents have done for the uplift and training of the village. (Verne, 1999) The village of Aloke Taluka has a very fascinating and captivating programme to assert water. It is something worth analyzing because it shows the desire by the inhabitants of the area to conserve water as it is a scarce resource for them.The get word was initiated with the assistance and collaboration of Windsor University of Canada and the cooperation of local government body. The main mission behind this program was to devise strategies which would family in water from every possible place (mainly in the areas where the water gets wasted), turning it into a huge reservoir (Lewis, 2004) The land on which the land takes place, had never been used before for this purpose so it remained rich and fertile which emergenceed in extra yield. Terraces were also built on the tops so to prevent water from runn ing off the slopes and to match soil wearing too.Another interesting way to conserve water was to store water from the roof sheds of the houses. In this way, water was used in kitchens and for gardening purposes. Aquifers were made in a traditional way so water could be stored in it. (Lewis, 2004)Various other contour bunds, damns and nalla bunds were built with the traditional designing and low excavations include ponds and trenches. These trenches were made at 90 degree to the slop of the hills to stop the runoff water and the rich fertile soil from the surface.Waste from farms was taken to field to make soil fertile. It mostly included cow dung and dead leaves. The elder generation of the village has also set up a committee in the area where meetings are held on the timed basis to talk about and converse things related to the farming practices. (Lewis, 2004). They retrieve that in the order they carried out their farming practices were far better than immediatelys as it yiel ded good results. These nitty gritty and tips full of wisdom can only be found in the talk with the elderly men, can not be found in books.They train and coach their sonny farmers who always get something important to learn from them related to the field of farming. To conduce an example, there is a tree which is admired, valued and honored by the local community. On snooping it further, it was found that that type of a tree always grows in those places where table is closer to the surface, so the land can be dig out to bring out water easily. This research helped a curing as it uncovered many wells and springs located in the area. The main advantage of this knowledge is that it makes researchers think for more sound and viable solutions.It makes them meditate natural fertilizers available in the area like cow dung, burnt-out leaves, ashes of left crop etc. (Lewis, 2004)The awareness of using clean water for the palm and live stocks brought many benefits for the village. Before its knowledge people were of the take hold of that they can come with good amount of yield with any kind of water, whether it is dirty or clean. Now when they were made aware of the repercussions of the dirty water, they demand clean water as crops yields more, live stock remains honorable and copious amount of milk is being produced.This also had an overall domineering effect on the hygiene of the village as they are get healthy things to eat without any toxic or unhygienic elements in it. Notion of crop rotation is also practiced over there. It was first started in 16Th century and its main purpose was to give the fields some rest in order to gain some keep and minerals so it could give better yield in the next harvest. (Jeffery, 2001). . The disadvantages associated with this solution are also there. First of all they are dealing with the kharif crops and no other cash crops are added to the carts.Also, electricity and gas supply is require for sugar mill to start operatin g and until its availability to the area the sugar mill unit can not be set up. Moreover, the water supply is not ensured as there is no permanent line in the area and it can be a big problem if rainfall cycle gets disturbed. (Jeffery, 2001) Tackling the very the first option of bringing the subway line, the local representatives who have say in both the federal and dominion government came up with the proposal of bringing in water from a British made dam located 8km from the area through a piping line in cooperation and collaboration of Sugar Mill.Seeing from the devisers point of view, taking water from the neighboring dam will give a respite to locals from importing in costly water tankers from the dam. (Jeffery, 2001) nonpareil major positive point behind the whole project is that no hill slopes modifications are required for the construction of pipe line. If we audit the positives of the project more closely we come to a conclusion that water pipe line is always imperativ e for a locality that is disadvantaged due to the insufficient supply of water for most of the year.So in this regard if direct access of water is given to the village, it will not only be used for agricultural purposes but also for the domestic use too. pee is the basic necessity of life so ease of its availability will certainly improve hygiene conditions of the locals. well-nigh of the diseases which pop due to insufficiency of water shall be wiped out due to its supply. Most of all, water will bring in development in the locality as more people will be attracted to the place which would in turn return to the social development of the area too.(Lewis, 2004). Sugar cane is a cash crop, so cultivating it will for sure help locality to raise its standards from the past. Growing sugar will also exert a pull on Sugar Mill owners to set up their plants faithful the area so they can procure the crop as soon as it is ready. This would bring in enjoyment for the villagers which woul d raise their income levels and thus will increase economic activity in the area. Extra revenues will lead to more investments in markets in the village which also include purchase of new land, making of new shops and stores etc.(Wirthman, 2001) If we see the dark side of the picture, one can harbinger that in times to come the plan does not seem to be working efficiently as it is meant to be. First of all, pipe line is not going to generate enough employment for the village which would give the locals a cushion against their financial problems. Moreover when pipe line is completed, villagers will realize that it was a momentary bonus for them as this job was not there on permanent basis. (Wirthman, 2001)Looking at the cultivation of the sugar cane itself, we find out that the farmers from that locality have a weak financial back bone. Sugar cane requires slews of high quality fertilizers and farmers can not pass it so if they use cheap fertilizers, it would produce low and subst andard quality crop which would neither be valuable for the cane grower nor to the sugar mill. Also, if we divert our help to the local government conditions we see that due to vested interests and nepotism, some groups would use their bend in the division of water from the pipe line.Apart form this maintenance of the pipe line is also a major issue. It is strongly believed that as the pipe line will be there in the hands of the government, it would not be properly maintain which would be drastic in the long term. (Wirthman, 2001) Laying down such a big pipe line is also a daunting task to undertake. Its maintenance is also one of he biggest issues to handle because if its maintenance costs overrun the economic interests of the locality, then it wont be considered as a good project to undertake.So option number one closes with its all positives and negatives. One big question which raises its ugly head is the cultivating sugar cane. Soil in this area had already lost valuable nut rients which had decreased its fecundity and with every harvest, it will continue to vex less fertile. (Wirthman, 2001) The experts have already apprised the locals not to grow cane in this area as the soil is on the brink of degradation. The reason is that sugar cane requires a lot of fertilizers along with these nutrients.After two or three harvests, the soil looses its authorization and turn into a low nutrient soil which is not good for growing next crop of sugar cane harvest, even for second crops (grains, pulses). Thus in the long run, this pipe line will be used for the domestic purposes only in stead of watering the field for growing the cash crops like sugar cane. (Wirthman, 2001) Conclusion In the readable of all the positives and negatives discussed earlier, we firmly believe that the practices started by villagers of neighboring Aloke Taluka very some(prenominal) gratify all the questions brought forward in the beginning of the research paper.The consequences of the se practices would result in great benefit for the entire village and its inhabitants (Verne, 1999). If we analyze it, we see that in the area, 20% of the houses have a direct access to the flip water from springs whereas rest of the area have an access to water from other different sources which would uplift the living standards of that locality and will make people self sufficient in financial, economical and social terms which would in term enable them to arrange their own amenities of life not being provided by government up till now.The average electrical capacity of water available to people can be raised up to 750 liters a day and can rise further too. This can only take place if 73000cubic meters of water can be stored in around 14 masonry check damns and gabions (Wirthman, 2001). A winter crop can also be grown as an alternative or second crop. This all will generate economic activity in the area which will open up new markets for the villagers adding up extra revenues in their annual income.Uplifting of standards will increase morale of people. They now have a sense that they need to keep their appearance reasonable and keeping up homes and houses is essential. People will now have surplus resources which will be used in research purposes with different cash crops such as grafting and making new ways of minting money. When people will become self sufficient at the lower levels, they would be able to afford school for their children which in the long run will be beneficial for the whole society.Many of the well- off farmers has bought some machinery for their farms in order to equip threshing and plowing of their crops and fields. (Prasad, 2002). Reference Ameen, Retrieved June 20, 2008, from Call of the hill Web state of affairs http//westernghats. blogspot. com/(2001 April). Bonelle, M (2005) Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics Past, prove and Future Hydrological Research for Integrated Land and Water Management (International Hydrol ogy Series) . Cambridge University Press. 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