Farm women contribution in management of natural water bodies in Uttarakhand hills Rawat Indu1,*, Roy Trisha2, Bishnoi Rajesh3, Singh Madan4, Kumar Ambrish5 1Senior Scientist, ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 2Scientist, ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 3ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulse Research, Regional Research Centre, Bikaner, Rajasthan 4Scientist, ICAR-Indian Institute of Veterinary Research, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 5Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar *Corresponding author email id: rawat.indu15@gmail.com
Online Published on 18 March, 2024. Abstract In Indian perspective, groundwater and water from river system are the main source of water supply for drinking, domestic and agricultural purposes, but in hilly areas, natural water bodies like streams and springs are serving the purpose. The water source naturally appears in the hills is slowly and slowly moving toward scarcity which would have negative impact on hill agriculture and as a result on the survival of the hilly people. In hilly areas of Uttarakhand, only the natural water is used and no treatment is given to water before consumption, so this research was undertaken to study the availability of water bodies in the villages and their current status in terms of their functionality, to assess the role of women in management of water resources and to assess the water quality as affected by different conservation practices. The study was conducted in the Jaunsar region of Kalsi block, Dehradun and Tehri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand. Total 200 respondents were selected for interview. Results depicted that under traditional water sources, about 93 per cent respondents have chasma / naula as water source. Only 37 per cent natural water sources are functional which are used for drinking and other domestic purposes. Majority of the respondents (56%) are cleaning and maintaining the resources twice in a year followed by 38 per cent respondents who used to clean on monthly basis. Women (91%) were doing afforestation activities followed by digging of temporary ponds to harvest rain water. Top Keywords Natural resource, Springs, Water bodies, Water management. Top |