Learning how rural india manages to harvest water

Arrival, 20 Dec 2000: They came from all over India. Ten children accompanied by their parents or teachers.

Day 1, 21 Dec: Greetings from Pandit Gobar Ganesh to all the tourwallahs. Morning finds them in our head office at Tughlakabad where they learn how Gobar Times is produced. A GT ecotour workbook is distributed. Everyone is a student and teacher at the same time. Even the adults. After lunch off for an ecotour to the traditional water harvesting sites at Mehrauli — a lesson in environmental history. Scrambling around the maze-like steps and tunnels of Gandhak baoli and Rajon ki bains. How the town of Mehrauli caught rain water to meet their needs. Why don’t we catch water where it falls?

Day 2, 22 Dec: Early morning by bus to Alwar and then on to Bhikampura village, the ashram of the NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS). To see a johad?... traditional water harvesting structures in this arid region. On the way how a marble mining site, how it literally eats away the earth, forests everything. Rajendra Singh, the man behind TBS recounts how he along with other members of the community began reviving johads. Lazy urban folk struggle to keep pace with him as he takes the group on a fascinating but long and tiring walk through the fields to get to the johads. ‘Ouch’..someone gets a thorn in the foot. Better understanding of how water and soil conservation has improved the lives of the villagers. How good natural resource management transforms peoples lives. Only when land and water rights belong with the people and not a indifferent government. Star gazing after a hot meal of dal-bati churma. Trees planted around the premises of TBS make December even colder.

Fundung

Day 3, 23 Dec: Visit to a village to see a johad under construction. A talk with the local people to get a first hand account of water problems and how it is handled. Picnic lunch of cabbage and puris out in the fields, an intimate interaction with grazing goats. ‘Wow, look, hundreds of pelicans!’. ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ renacted in the mustard fields. Evening visit to a local temple.

Day 4, 24 Dec: Drive in open jeeps through Sariska Tiger Reserve. Sambars, neelgais, cheetal and peacocks...tiger? Almost. The field director explains how to count tigers and the management of forests. Return to Delhi.

Day 5, 25 Dec: Christmas plum cake. Concluding session where children make a presentation of what they learnt from the trip, in the form of a play, to invitees. A display of the entries. ‘Bye...email me, OK?’