A rural expedition ! 26/11 to 02/12
Motivation for the Camp:
Every semester Group for Rural Activities (GRA) organizes a trip to some Rural Area in various parts of India. The aim of these camps is two fold. On one side it aims to expose IITians to Rural setting so that the technology developed at IIT is not just cutting edge, but also socially relevant; not just Òtechnology Ó, but Òappropriate technologyÓ. The other aim is to learn from the wealth of existing traditional knowledge systems. Observing the social and cultural lifestyles of those parts is also an important component of the trip in addition to the above mentioned goals; after all, life is not compartmentalized and each aspect of life has an effect on all the other spheres of life in varying degrees. Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan, known for its extreme weather conditions was the location of this semester Õs camp. The arid weather of Jaisalmer district, which is covered by deserts, is quite unfavourable for the sustenance of any life form let alone humans. In such severe conditions, some of our brethren have taken up the herculean task of improving the life of rural folk in the region. Some of their ongoing efforts include revival of traditional water management techniques, animal husbandry and addressing the social issues. Our motive was to learn and take inspiration from such endeavours in addition to experiencing the hospitality and rich heritage of this land.
Day 1: Jaisalmer City
We reached Jaisalmer city by train passing though Jodhpur, Pokhran etc. on 27th November, 2006. We spent the Þrst day exploring the ÒGolden CityÓ Jaisalmer, with its forts and palaces, attesting for its historical splendour. The artisan and construction expertise displayed in those forts is beyond description.
Day 2: Water Management Systems in and around Jaisalmer
The focus of earlier part of second day was to see some traditional water management systems. The water table can be divided into three main categories: surface water, seepage water and underground water. Tradition wisdom suggests that Þrst surface water from sources like khadeen and lakes should be used, followed by water from bavdi. Underground water should be used only as a last option. Bavdi is a small water storing body in the ground. It is replenished by a seasonal rain-fed stream. We were surprised to hear from the villagers that once Þlled, the whole village can manage water for a whole year from one Bavdi. We were even more amazed to know that Bavdi is not a huge, gigantic tank, but of simple one, 5-7 meters deep and the secret was careful usage of the water by the villagers. We also saw some man-made lakes like Ghadisar lake, constructed four centuries ago. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that King Ghad Singh himself used to come and participate in digging of the lake everyday to set an example and stress the importance of water systems. Khadeens are the main component of traditional rain water harvesting techniques in Jaisalmer. A Khadeen typically constitutes of a sloping tract of land with an embankment which acts as a catchment ground for rainfall. This type of land, called a ÔkhadeenÔ, due to the collected water becomes fertile by the time of the rabi sowing season. In fact, it is cultivated without fertilizers and gives a rich harvest of wheat or mustard (sarson). The collected water is let into a well on the other side of the embankment by an opening gate. This water is used to maintain a beautiful vegetable garden by a system of channels. And so the khadeen has generated food, livelihood, a beautiful garden and an ecosystem. The reason why this is exclusive to this region is that the land can hold the water for a very long period of time because of a layer of gypsum beneath the soil. This ÔharvestedÕ water is effectively utilized to grow rabi crops which are typically grown with two doses of irrigated water elsewhere. Some of the khadeens were 400-800 years old. We visited one such khadeen at ÒBada BaghÓ. We also saw vast number of wind mill in some areas. These wind mills generate the necessary power for the whole Jaisalmer district. In the afternoon we visited a village called ÒM edhwalon ki DhaniÓ and interacted with some of the villagers. It was a very different experience from the rest of the dayÕs scheme owing to the perplexing situation of these villagers which they shared with us. With the Forest Department taking the esponsibility of the fertile land earlier inhabited by them for expanding the Desert National
Park (DNP), most of them got displaced from their traditional dwellings. Ironically, the trees planted for expanding the DNP by the forest department was an Australian variety of Babul,which though grows faster, draws more water and which animals do not graze on, thus effecting the natural food cycle. This experience set our minds thinking about the possible causes of such asynchronous state of affairs.
In the later part of the second day, we visited a farm owned by TISDS (Thar Integrated Social Development Society). Covering a land area of 150 bigha, this is a showcase project of the Society for supporting indigenous vegetation of sewan grass that consumes minimal ground water. It also acts as a fodder for the cattle and helps in restricting the growth of desert, thus making it a preferred option over other varieties of trees in the desert atmosphere. Jetu Singh Bhati ji, the founder of TISDS explained that due to the improper understanding of the technology, many people instead of adapting the technology to suit their conditions are going for blind imitation. One such instance is that many people in the extreme water scarce conditions of Jaisalmer moving towards growing of crops which require very high amounts of water. These crops give temporary high proÞts for a couple of years. But owing to the scarce rainfall, all the ground water reserves are drained in the process. Thus after a couple of years, the land becomes useless not just for the new set of crops but also for the traditional crops. To express it in a simple simile, it is like the story of hen giving golden eggs. Based on this experience, we then realized that itÕs not just ÒdevelopmentÓ,but Òsustainable developmentÓ that must be our keyword.
Day 3: Cultural and Socio!Economic tour of Jaisalmer Distric"
The next phase of our camp was Sultana village near the border. We started in the morning from Jaisalmer and reached Sultana by evening while halting at various points in the journey. Our Þrst signiÞ-cant halt for the day was a stone quarry at Jethawai known for excellent quality sandstone. But this place is more famous for the coral-like fossils which are formed only in places having huge water bodies. The local tradition attributes this rock- formation of layered limestone to the vast sea-like Saraswati river that has been known to ßow in this region in the Vedic times. Our next halts were at ÒVaishakhiÓ and ÒPaliwalon ka KhabaÓ, both the ancient towns of Paliwal community which lived there eight centuries ago. The whole Paliwal community which was spread over 84 villages is said to have vacated all those villages in a single night and ßed to a different place in order to save the honour of one of their daughters from the then king who set his eyes on her. What appealed to us was the whole community stood together as a single unit against the force of the king for the sake of a single family instead of abandoning the neighbour just because the problem does not concern ÒthemÓ. The vil- lages though now totally deserted and in ruins stand as proof for the excellent town planning and community living eight centuries ago. The origin of many khadeens and bavdis is also attrib- uted to the Paliwal community.
Later in the journey we stopped at a village ÒKhabhiaÓ. We split into groups of four with each group visiting a house and discussing their everyday life. We also conversed with the Sarpanch of the village, who enthusiastically educated on various facts related to the village.Finally, on the evening of day 3 we reached the Sultana village. Our main agenda here was to visit the surrounding places and learn more about their lifestyles. Our stay there was arranged in the villageÕs community hall referred as ÒVivekananda HallÓ named after the patriotic monk of India, Swami Vivekananda. The community hall serves as an important pivotal point of the villageÕs social life. It was very pleasant experience to see the whole village come to receive us. Many of us from urban backgrounds were amazed by seeing in real all ideals of Òathidi devo bhavaÓ and community living which till then were only theories to us. We were assisted by ÒSeema Raksha DalÓ in the present phase of our expedition. ÒSeema Rakha DalÓ is an initiative by some of the villages along the border at the height of cross-border trafÞcking to protect their villages (which are just 50 KM away from the border). The Sultana village was burned down completely twice by mercenaries across the border, once in 1948 and another time in 1965. But on both the occasions, the determined villagers came back to their ancestral home and rebuild the whole village again. In fact that is the Þrst thing which struck us when we went to this region. They live in extreme climatic and conßict prone area, yet their conÞdence is incomparable. They never see problems, they only see challenges. The ÒSeema Raksha DalÓ widened its scope into the overall social development of the area after the international border along Rajasthan was fenced in the last decade.
Day 4: Irrigation and Developmental Schemes in Sultana
On day 4, waking up early in the morning (much much early by IIT standards we felt!) with the rest of the village, we Þrst went to visit some of the irrigation farms. Irrigation here has been made possible by Indira Gandhi canal, bringing water to these regions. The problems here were more intricate and complex. The canal brought water to these regions and made irrigation possible. Hence many of the people left their traditional livelihood and moved on to agriculture. So far, so good. But agriculture being followed here is very fertilizer intensive, hence bringing down the proÞts. Also as more people shifted to agriculture the water requirement crossed the estimates hence leading to shortage of available water. They are now in a catch 22 situation where they left their traditional livelihood on one side and shortage of available water and increasing need of fertilizers on the other side. In addition to this, the depletion of sewan grass in order to make the land cultivable also increased the frequency of sand dunes blowing into the farms. This situation again brought the idea of sustainable development and relevant technology to our minds. The problem here was that the solutions proposed, though good in motive, were unidirectional and short-sighted in nature. The problem was approached from a purely technical angle ignoring the human aspect, thus creating more problems than were solved.
We later interacted with some of the farmers there. During the course of our discussion, they urged that people like IITians should also focus their genius on the improvement of agriculture
sector which is the backbone of our country. Our next stop was at a ÒGoadÓ dwelling place. Goads are a nomads having animal husbandry as their occupation. They move from place to place along with their cattle seasonally depending on the availability of grass for the cattle. Ironic it may seem but they have severe water scarcity but plenty of milk. We even came across an old person who did not have water to drink for one whole month and survived by drinking milk instead. We then reached ÒArjunaÓ village for our lunch. The way lunch was planned was very different from the routine manner in which all people sit at a single place, eat and disperse. They divided us into groups of three. Each group will go to a house in the village, eat together with them as part of their family. The warmth with which each of us were received in their houses was really touching. Another interesting fact which struck us was that none of them bothered to ask us our caste or religious background before inviting us into their houses. It was certainly a refreshing experience to note how things are on march even in places notorious for such inclinations. During our later discussions we came to know that this change was made possible because the people realised that a fractured society, divided along caste and community lines can never progress and will become easy prey to vested interests.
Our last halt for day 4 was a visit to Sultana Panchayat School. Though the school suffers from limitations like lack of teachers, the kids were very sharp and talented. Another comforting fact which came to our observation was that the number of boys and girls attending the school was also roughly the same.
Day 5: Settlements in the Desert and some BSF posts
Till this time we were prowling in the moderate regions of Rajasthan, but on day 5 we ventured to go into the extreme limits of the desert. There was nothing but sand on all the sides and between it is a single road meant for movement of army vehicles. We had to travel for 2-3 hours into the desert without any trace of human existence, before reaching a Dhani. Dhani is the local name for a small settlement of people. We went into some of their houses and had some interaction with them. The houses there were made of mud and offered excellent protection from the extreme heat and cold of the desert and also from the rapidly sifting sand dunes. The main occupation of the people here is animal husbandry. Water being an extremely rare commodity here (thanks to the pipeline constructed to the most interior parts in the earlier decade, this problem is now partially solved), is used with great care and their whole lifestyles are woven into such efÞcient use of water. An unexpected surprise was to Þnd a small school for women there. Judging from the standards of urban schools, this school was deÞnitely lacking in infrastructure. But when seen in the context and considering the place where we were standing, it was indeed a valiant effort. Later, we had our share of fun by climbing and playing in the neighbouring sand hills. From there we reached Ramgarh TV relay tower. It is a huge tower constructed to ensure an upper hand in telecommunications in the vital border areas. We also visited the Ramgarh school and interacted with the students for some time. The interaction was very lively and children there were oozing with energy. We then proceeded for lunch and were treated with the famed Rajasthani dal-bati.
Our next important halt for day 5 was at BSF post in Longewala. This place was venue for one of the decisive battles in the two week long war between India and Pakistan in 1971. In a decisive victory, though heavily outnumbered, Indian Army and Air Force destroyed more than 40 tanks and 100 vehicles belonging to Pakistan army. The bollywood hit ÒBorderÓ movie was also based on this battle. We saw some destroyed tank and vehicles kept there as victory symbols. We then visited the memorial, constructed in remembrance of all those who gave their lives protecting the country. Standing there we were Þlled with emotion and patriotism in reverence to the Jawans defending our borders. We also visited Mata Tanut temple, a very famous temple in that region. The special appealing factor of this temple is that it is almost entirely maintained by the Jawans. It acts as a source of much needed spiritual strength for them who leave all their possessions behind to answer the call of duty.
Making our journey back, we reached Jaisalmer by night. From there we took a train to Jodhpur and reached Jodhpur the next morning ie., on the morning of December 6, 2007. With this our camp came to an end and all of us dispersed to our respective. Concluding Remarks:
Over all it was a great learning experience for all of us packed with fun and adventure. The advantage of going in group is that the combined churning of ideas produces much better results and we tend to observe aspects which usually go unnoticed. We also got a chance to enjoy the village atmosphere and hospitality.
But above all, we could witness the various facets of development. Development is usually understood in a unidirectional and compartmentalized sense, as pertaining to purely technical or social sphere. But the important factors like the living style of the people, suitability of a developmental model to that particular place and group are often forgotten. Development has its own pace and efforts to concentrate only on one aspect, ignoring the rest often leads to loss of balance. The local and traditional characteristics should also be considered in framing of the developmental models. Sustainable Development and Relevant Technology should hence become our catch words. These of course may be common sense, but probably the most wanting factors for the very same reason. One element which left a lasting impression on all of us is the power of human will and determination. These people were faced with continuous warfare and climatic extremities, but they never lost their conÞdence and incessantly struggled to overcome those challenges. This reassured us that if such extremities can be overcome by human determination, our country as a whole, which on an average scale is gifted more generously by nature, can surely make great progress if all of us come together determined to take our country along the path of glory.
Jai Hind
Group for Rural Activities, IIT Bombay
posted by Shanta Kumar @ 11:19 AM
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