Second phase of watershed development project launched

Our correspondent

Pithoragarh, December 5

The population in more than 1000 revenue villages in eight hill districts will be benefited by developing 82 micro watershed areas to generate traditional water sources, besides pastures and marketable crops in these villages. With this the second phase of Uttarakhand watershed development project has been launched in the state.

According to the officers related to the second phase of the project, the 7-year-long phase will have more than Rs 700 crore expenditure in seven years of the project out of which over Rs 250 crore will be spent by the state government. “ The project has been envisioned assuming that the hill villagers are migrating rapidly from their ancestral villages due to lack of livelihood and scarcity of water sources. Agriculture is on the verge of becoming profitless venture due to non-availability of advanced seeds and other advanced agricultural equipments,” said Gauri Shankar, project manager of phase - 2 watershed development project in Kumaon region.

According to the director of the project in the region, besides regeneration of traditional water sources, the project will lay emphasis on development of non-conventional power sources like bio gas, solar and pine bricks, formation of women farmer nurseries, plantation of seedling for use of fodder and fuel in these villages and encouraging farmers to go in for non-irrigated and irrigated agricultural land in the villages under the project. ''The project will be implemented by several departments in the form of small fragments which will be monitored by the team in charge for the project,'' said the director.