Profile of activities October 1988

This project was commenced in 1984 in the Jawaja block of Ajmer district in Rajasthan.. It has since spread not only in Ajmer district, but also to Bhilwara district and to a small ex tent in Pali district. The project activities have grown with increasing community conscious ness and initiatives in understanding existing and potential roles in the ecological systems. The implementing lead agency, the Jawaja Project Group (JPG) has made conscious ef forts to perpetuate a dialogue with village communities in the past years. This has led to a logical progression in pace, geographical spread and diversity of responses to the com munity priorities. The project started with protection of existing vegetation by villagers, a nursery programme for a private plantation and dibbling or planting of fuelwood and fodder species, and later went on to community plantations and grass cultivation. In 1987 there have been two new dimensions, viz., decentralising nurseries further into baskets, with each family needing saplings, and secondly, watershed management.
2. JPG is now capable of handling the nursery programme with a minimum of external aid, Large-scale plantations on common lands were planned for 1987 but these were limited by the severity of the drought. Individuals, however, went ahead with planting on their fields, even watering the saplings to keep them alive. The numbers of basket nurseries, and their output, were both encouraging, and many improvements in techniques have emerged. Grass cultivation was taken up as a priority but with imited success because of the drought.
3. In future, the emphasis will be on providing adequate soil and water conservation measures to support grasses. Work on the watershed in Bhilwara which was surveyed last year has been characterised by intensive participation of the community in protecting the area, plugging gullies, digging contour trenches, planting on the berms and providing sup port irrigation.