Case2-June-2017
The Takiguda watershed is situated in Gudihathnoor mandal of Adilabad district in Telangana state. The watershed lies within 78o34″ longitude and 19o31″ latitude. The highest point of the watershed is 445 m, lowest point is 420 m from mean sea level (MSL) and height difference is 25 m. Watershed area is situated 5-12 km away from Gudihathnoor, between Indervelly and Adilabad. The watershed is surrounded by Indervelly in the east, Gudihathnoor in the west, Neradigonda watershed in the south and Adilabad in the north.
The watershed area is one of the important tribal areas and covers an area of 15.75 sq. km (1575 ha). The population of watershed is 1937. It consists of a Gram (Tosham), a revenue village (Tosham) with seven hamlets (Takiguda, Tosham, Tosham thanda, Lendiguda, Suryaguda, Soyamguda and Telangraoguda). The normal annual rainfall of this watershed is 1102 mm; out of which, 88% of rain is received during south-west monsoon (June-September) with July and August being the peak rainy months.
The relative humidity (RH) is generally high during South-West monsoon season. The climate during the rest of year is generally dry. The climate of the Mandal is characterised by hot summer to cold winter. The temperature touches 48oC in April and May and 10- 15oC in December and January. The soil of the Mandal is predominantly Black Cotton. The pH of the soil is normal to alkaline (7.5-8.0). The total soluble salt (TSS) is within normal limits. Organic carbon ‘C’ content of the soil is low to medium. Available phosphorous (P) is low and Potassium ‘K’ is medium to high. The major crops grown in the mandal during Kharif are cotton, maize, jowar, soyabeans, red gram, tomato and paddy. Crops grown during Rabi are jowar, maize, paddy, bengal gram, sesame, etc.
The people of Takiguda, Telangaraoguda, Shoyamguda, Suryaguda, Lendiguda, Thosham and Thosham thanda (Takiguda watershed) struggled much due to water problem during summer. Even in late winter, they were not able to access sufficient water before execution of the watershed works. Drinking water for the livestock was major problem in summer. The women carry pots and walk for few kilometers to procure drinking water for their household needs. The bore wells got dried up in the agricultural fields of Takiguda village.
To locate water, they deepen the bore wells to more than 300 feet without getting any trace of water. There are only nine open wells in the area and they become dry early in summer. Almost all these bore wells are abandoned during summer due to lack of water.
With financial support from NABARD WDF, the DHAN Foundation facilitated three watersheds in the Gudihathnoor mandal.
As part of area treatment and drainage line treatment in Takiguda watershed, we built several structures to capture rain water and make it percolate into the individual farmers’ fields. These harvesting structures were built in more than 1,500 Ha of individual farmer’s field areas in the watershed.
The important water harvested structures executed were one check dam, 52 farm ponds, 106337 cum bunding, 715 stone outlets, water absorption trench of 400 running metres(rm), 85 loose boulder structures, stone gully plugs 106 and pebble bunding 1,723 rm and dug out ponds, etc.
Underground water table after the watershed: With all these structures, sufficient rainwater got percolated into the ground and increased the underground water table. In Takiguda village, the dried-up bore wells and open wells became functional after the watershed works were carried out. In Telangaraoguda, there was no water in summer. The farmers never tried to dig open wells because of the fear of not getting water in it. So, there were only two open wells before the watershed came into existence. The work was done under ITDA (Integrated Tribal Development Agency) scheme for tribal people with 100% subsidy nearly 30 years back.
After learning about the underground water table at Takiguda and Thosham, 5 farmers (Mesram Maru, Gangaram K., Bhupathi R, Bandari Devdas and Raisidam Bhumanna) came forward to dig open wells in their agricultural fields. After they dug out open wells, they got water in all 5 open wells at a depth of 2 metres from the ground level. About 3 to 4 metres of water was available to them in summer. Farmers were surprised by the availability of water even in summer. According to Mesram Maru Patel, a newly dug open well farmer “the major problem of water was solved by the watershed works carried out around our village over five years”.
The Trench cum bunding is proposed across the slope in cultivable land as well as in cultivable waste land. it’s depended up on soil type. The TCB in block cotton soil very suitable where more rainfall is likely. The soil erosion and water conservation is more through TCB. In design the width of bund is 1.5 mts and depth is 0.50 with c/s is 0.75 Sq.m. Due to more depth the TCB area is not available for cultivation and is sustainable over long time. In this watershed total of 106337m TCB is done for the total value of Rs 69.49 lakhs.
The Pebble bunding is proposed where pebbles are available and the land become cultivable and to conserve soil. The size of stone is 0.10m to 0.20m and slope is not considerable. The cross section of the PB is 0.50 Sq.m with half circular shape.
This watershed have normal rainfall of more than 1000mm i.e. every 100 -200 rm of TCB or joining natural drainage for disposal of excess water needs to have stone outlet otherwise the bund may get damaged during rainy season / flood. The SO reduces the water logging and crop damage. 715 SO’s got created at the cost of Rs 8.29 lakhs.
The WAT is proposed to tackle unexpected runoff from the treated hillock/slopping lands with WAT (Water aborption trench). WAT was established at every 100 m horizontal intervel at the bounderies of the hillocks. The Cross section of the WAT is 1 sq.m.
Stone Gunny Plug(SGP)- SGP/ Loose boulder structure (LBS) can be defined as SGP/LBS are stones placed across gullies or valleys, so as to capture nutrients, silt and moisture. Stones are often embedded into the upper surface of spillway aprons and wells to provide support for the next layer. It captures the runoff from a broad catchment area, thus transferring low rainfall into utilizable soil moisture, and to prevent soil erosion. Slowing of the flow of water helps in settling down organically rich soil. A well maintained gully plug creates a flat, fertile and moist field, where high value crops and trees can be grown. In many areas where gully plugs were built, agricultural production has increased, and farmers have shifted to high value crops. 126 SGP /LBS got established in Takiguda watershed.
Loose boulder structure as same build as mentioned above but it was treated in first order drainage. In Takiguda watershed He and all the villagers are indebted to DHAN and NABARD for solving the problem they faced for several decades.
Another tribal farmer Kotnaka Bheemrao from Thosham village shared his experience. His bore was dried up usually and he faced many problems to irrigate his crops. The watershed works were completed in the course of time in his field and surrounding fields. After a few months, he noticed that his bore was pumping water. He expressed his happiness to us that “I already lost hope on that bore well and fell into deep trouble because of successive crop failure. I was in depression. At this instance, miracle happened with watershed works and my all sorrows came to an end”.
Phad Datta, a farmer belonging to Takiguda village owns agricultural land with survey no.120. In his land, he carried out 300 Rmts of bunding work and one farm pond works as part of EDF watershed programme. In his farmland, he has bore well for irrigation purpose. Before the farm pond was excavated in his field, the capacity of pumping irrigation water through bore was very limited. Now, there is plenty of water available even in summer. He is happy to share that the yields he is getting after building the watershed has increased from 25% to 30% per acre. It is because of the moisture available in the soil. Now, in summer also, he is doing vegetable cultivation and getting good returns. He and his family are living satisfactorily. He says that his bore well water level has increased and it is around 10 to 15 feet below the ground level.
There is one stream flowing through this watershed called as the Devapur gutta nala. It is the major source of drinking water for the livestock and also a source of life saving irrigation for the stream bank farmers. This stream used to dry up early summer every year before the watershed was constructed; now it lasts up to June, i.e. few days prior to the arrival of the monsoons.
Earlier, the farmers practiced cultivation during Kharif season only. The farmers started cultivating rabi crops on assurance of receiving secured irrigation water in almost all the seven watershed villages. Now, nearly 60% land is under cultivation during rabi season in this area. The impact of availability of underground water table is observed before and after our watershed works in these areas.