Operationalisation of watershed guidelines: an indepth analysis

Watershed development in India has now assumed a national movement and thousands of watershed projects are under implementation in the country. Many government, non-government organisations and autonomous agencies are involved in watershed management through participa tory approach. In order to bring uniformity in managing. various components of watershed project, Government of India has introduced the Common Watershed Guidelines (CWG) since April 1995. These guidelines provide a broad framework within which multidimensional watershed projects have to be managed.

The first phase of implementation of watershed guidelines has generated interesting experience, which has been deliberated upon at various fora. But the guidelines components are so varied and their interpretation so differ ent that they have a direct bearing on the project implemen tation. Obviously, this needs an in-depth analysis.

Present publication "Operationalisation of Water shed Guidelines", by Dr. A.P. Purandare and Dr. A.K. Jaiswal of the Institute is such an effort to analyse in detail the prescriptions and practices under various components of watershed guidelines. Their work is based on field applica tion of various aspects of guidelines to different watersheds. After presenting the field based findings, they suggest suitable modifications in certain components of the guide lines and follow-up actions for different organisations/de partments.