Rajasthan Test 6

Water conservation has been the defining challenge and the most celebrated cultural achievement of Rajasthan, a state that receives one of the lowest average annual rainfalls in India yet has sustained civilisations, cities, and agricultural communities for millennia through the ingenuity and collective wisdom of its people. The harsh geography of Rajasthan — dominated by the Thar Desert in the west, rocky terrain in the south, and semiarid plains across much of its expanse — has been the crucible in which some of the world's most sophisticated and beautiful traditional water harvesting systems were developed and maintained by generations of communities. The johad is perhaps the most iconic and widespread of Rajasthan's traditional water structures. A johad is an earthen check dam constructed across a natural drainage channel or depression to capture and store monsoon runoff. Johads come in a vast range of sizes, from small village-level structures that collect a few hundred thousand litres to large community johads that cover several hectares and sustain agriculture and drinking water needs through most of the year. The construction and maintenance of johads was traditionally managed through community governance systems with defined rules about rights to water, responsibilities for maintenance, and penalties for violation. The tarun Bharat Sangh, an organisation led by water conservationist Rajendra Singh, became internationally renowned for its work in reviving johads in the Alwar district of Rajasthan during the 1980s and 1990s. This revival work, which involved organising thousands of villages to reconstruct and maintain johads, led to the remarkable rejuvenation of five rivers that had run dry, demonstrating the power of traditional water harvesting at scale. Rajendra Singh was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize, the Nobel Prize equivalent in water science, for this work. The bawdi, or stepwell, is another magnificent form of traditional water architecture found across Rajasthan and represents one of the great achievements of subcontinental hydraulic engineering. Stepwells are structures in which a series of steps lead down to the water level, allowing access to water even as the water table fluctuates through the seasons. The Chand Baori at Abhaneri in Dausa district, with its thirteen storeys of geometric steps, is one of the largest and most visually stunning stepwells in the world and draws visitors from across the globe. The Raniji ki Baori in Bundi, the stepwells of Osian, and the numerous baories in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer demonstrate the extraordinary range and craftsmanship of this tradition. Stepwells served not merely as water storage structures but as social spaces where communities gathered, travellers rested, and merchants conducted business. Many stepwells were commissioned by queens, nobles, and merchants as acts of public philanthropy, and their walls are often adorned with intricate carvings and sculptures reflecting religious and cultural traditions. The tanka is a smaller, household or neighbourhood-level rainwater harvesting structure — essentially a cistern constructed below ground level to collect and store rainwater from rooftops or catchment areas. Tankas have been used in the arid western districts of Rajasthan for centuries, providing individual households with a private source of water that is protected from evaporation and contamination. The construction of tankas involves lining the storage chamber with lime plaster to prevent seepage, and a covered inlet filters incoming rainwater. In areas where the nearest water source is several kilometres away and where women and girls traditionally bear the burden of water collection, the household tanka represents a transformative technology that saves hours of labour daily and provides clean drinking water. The Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, also known as the Indira Gandhi Canal, is the largest irrigation project in India and the most transformative modern water infrastructure initiative in Rajasthan. The canal carries water from the Harike Barrage at the confluence of the Sutlej and Beas rivers in Punjab through a main channel of approximately six hundred fifty kilometres into the heart of the Thar Desert. The project was conceived to convert arid wasteland into productive agricultural land and to provide drinking water to the sparse population of western Rajasthan. The canal system has indeed brought green revolution to the districts of Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Barmer, and Jaisalmer, enabling cultivation of wheat, cotton, groundnut, and other crops in areas that were previously purely pastoral or desert. New settlements, towns, and markets have grown along the canal command area, transforming the demographic and economic landscape of western Rajasthan. However, the project has also brought environmental challenges including waterlogging and secondary salinisation in parts of the command area due to excessive irrigation and inadequate drainage, necessitating remedial measures. The state government's Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan, launched in 2016, represented a major revitalisation of the johad and traditional water harvesting tradition at scale, involving the construction and renovation of thousands of water conservation structures across rural Rajasthan with community participation and government support. The programme has been credited with improving groundwater levels and reducing water stress in participating villages.