Kamla Beniwal, the Rajasthan irrigation minister says, 'The irrigation department has the right over every drop of water'. For those who are not familiar with legalities of water, for every structure built to carry water (for example, a dead and dry drain), permission has to be taken from the government, or the irrigation department to be more precise. Next time when you do step into such a structure, remember you are trespassing in government property.

Alwar district in Rajasthan has been a drought-prone area with most of its forest cover denuded for decades. Till the mid-1980s. This was when a group of young men came together to form the Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS). The people were motivated to build traditional water harvesting structures like check dams (johads) and ponds. Trees were planted to rejuvenate Sariska. In none of these was the government involved. Everything was done by the people themselves. Once things started moving however, the government intervened in every way possible, destroying the trees planted by them, threatening them to stop building ponds and other such structures. Recently when the area was dying from drought, a water harvesting structure was demolished to make way for an airstrip. In 1987, all structures were declared illegal, but the order was later withdrawn.

Why? Reason number one is that the structure is illegal according to a colonial agreement between the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur, which says that 55 % of Ruparel's water belongs to Bharatpur. On the other hand, a Rajasthan government study shows that flow to Bharatpur is not hampered and it gets its fair share of water. The johad does not stop water or divert water like an ordainary dam does through canals. What it does is store the rainwater for some time to recharge the groundwater, after which it moves on downstream. Moreover the agreement was signed only when the river was perennial, and it stopped flowing perennially some three decades ago.

Reason number two is that the structure is 'not safe' according to the district magistrate. With the help of local communities, TBS has built more than 4,500 traditional structures in Rajasthan. During incessant rains in 1995, none of these community structures were damaged, while many of the government-made dams crumbled. Moreover, an analysis of these structures by former professor of civil engineering, IIT Kanpur, G D Agarwal, found these structures to be technically sound.


After intervention by the CSE and a few eminent persons, the demolition has been stopped. For the time being. The battle goes on. Government against community.