)
Last month, the Madhya Pradesh government placed before the Union agriculture minister an ambitious plan for levelling the ravines of Chambal and turning them into arable land. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is convinced that the barren badlands, which were once infested with dacoits, hold immense potential for agriculture.
The Chambal ravines that consist of sharp, steep, mud hillocks stretch across three states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh alone has 68,833 hectares of these ravines. To tap into their economic potential, the state's Bharatiya Janata Party government has rewritten the script of the "Madhya Pradesh Vision Document 2018" and revived the "Ravine Reclamation Project". In the new plan, called "Integrated Approach for the Reclamation of Ravines in the Chambal Region of Madhya Pradesh", the state government eyes the ravines mostly along the rivers Chambal, Sindh, Betwa and Kwari as well as the tributaries of Yamuna (Chambal is Yamuna's tributary).
The Madhya Pradesh government envisages the conversion of the entire ravine area of 68,833 hectares falling in the three districts of Morena, Sheopur and Bhind into farm land. For this, it has sought Rs 900 crore from the Central government. The total cost of the proposed project is estimated at Rs 1,100 crore, with the state government and the beneficiaries (farmers to whom the reclaimed land will be allotted) sharing the remaining burden.
According to a study quoted in the ravine reclamation concept note, about 3.97 million hectares of land in India form ravines. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat account for 2.7 million hectares, or 70 per cent, of the country's ravines, it adds. "Studies in ravine formation have revealed its [ravine] expansion is at 9.5 per cent per annum and [the] rate of soil loss is 65 tonne per hectare per year. Thus, every year nearly 8,000 hectares of land is claimed by ravines," reads the note prepared by the state's farmer welfare and agriculture development department.
While the note makes a strong case for reclaiming the ravines, the cost of levelling these jagged geographical formations is humongous. However, not all of the 68,833 hectares need to be levelled. The proposal talks about levelling 18,000 hectares at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per hectare. So, to begin with, Rs 180 crore is needed to merely level the area. Another Rs 82.5 crore will be needed to build 1,650 percolation tanks at the rate of Rs 5 lakh per tank. An estimate of Rs 50 crore has been determined for procuring machinery and equipment, and Rs 27 crore for contour bunding and so on. The core estimate for the project is between Rs 500 crore and Rs 650 crore to be spent in a phased manner over five years. Apart from this, the horticulture department is expected to invest Rs 100 crore in five years, animal husbandry Rs 20 crore and the state forest department about Rs 400 crore.
"The project also aims to protect the adjoining cultivable areas from being claimed by ravines," says Rajesh Rajora, principal secretary, farmer welfare and agriculture development department.
Failed experiments
On paper, the plan looks plausible. But in reality, it is riddled with ifs and buts. Senior officials in the Madhya Pradesh government say the Union government would take a soft loan from the World Bank for the project. So, a lot hinges on when the state government gets the grant from the Centre.
Besides, this is not the first time a plan has been floated to cull out something useful from the ravines. Governments at the centre have been coming up with various ravine reclamation programmes since the 1960s.
In 1971, the Central government launched a mega ravine reclamation project. "The idea was to develop 55,000 hectares of ravines for agriculture and about 25,000 hectare for forestry in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh," says a government official who does not wish to be named. "The cost of the project, to be implemented in four phases over 27 years, was Rs 1,250 crore," he adds.
In all 19 projects were undertaken in the area over 25 years, but only about 2,000 hectares of land could be reclaimed, say sources in the forest and agriculture departments. For one, the ravines were too stubborn to be bulldozed. "But the main issue was how to hand over the ownership of the government land to a farmer," says a retired official who held a senior position in the state agriculture department during the 1970s and '80s. "A few farmers came forward to convert the ravines into farm land, but none could script a success story." Converting the ravines into arable land proved to be beyond the capacity of the farmers.
Then, in a massive effort in the 1980s and 1990s, the state government set up the aerial seeding division to airdrop seeds of various plant species in the ravines. "Aerial seeding was introduced for species like babool (Acacia nilotica), vilayti babool (Prosopis) and jungle jalebi (Pithecellobium dulce). But it also failed," says Sadhuram Sharma, an agriculture expert and former civil servant who retired from the Madhya Pradesh agriculture department. "The seeds dropped by the government aircraft would get washed away in the rains or get stuck at some place or germinate in the nearby fields. This made farming even more difficult even though the Bhind-Morena region has fertile alluvial soil," adds R N Saxena, a senior forest official who has studied the agro-climatic conditions of the region.
A case for level thinking
Past examples might not be encouraging. Nevertheless the Chouhan government is pushing for the project. Chauhan, say political analysts, wants to have something to show in Chambal by 2018 when the state goes to polls. He has tried to make a mark through farm-friendly policies that have had the state witnessing high agriculture growth and he wants to keep that image intact. Along with the focus on agriculture, he wants to be seen as a chief minister who also nurtures industry. In the Gwalior-Chambal belt, for example, he has planned a new industrial area. Its feasibility study is complete. However, research by the Gwalior-based Madhav Institute of Technology and Science has shown that creating infrastructure, like roads, for industry in the ravine area would cost 1.5 times more than it does in the plains. The area has to be first levelled and the soil, which is prone to erosion, has to be strengthened.
"Chouhan might be going ahead with the concept, which has often failed in the past, but it can be fruitful only if proper homework and a third-party evaluation is done," says Girijashankar, a Bhopal-based political analyst.
Conservationists are, meanwhile, worried. "This is a sensitive area and has a delicate ecological balance," says Bharat Sharma, principle researcher and coordinator of the Inter-national Water Management Institute, New Delhi. "In certain areas, it is possible to level the ravines and dunes, but for that a thorough DEM (Digital Elevation Model) mapping should be done. This would help in identifying which slope can be levelled and which cannot." He is of the opinion that 20-25 per cent of the entire Chambal ravine area can be levelled, particularly near the villages and where the slopes are not steep. "But levelling for agriculture should not be attempted in those areas where slopes are steep or else it would disturb the ecological balance of the place," he cautions.
The Chambal river system is home to several kinds of fish, alligators and crocodiles, and is also the homing ground of migratory birds. How the project would impact them hasn't been ascertained yet. A thorough assessment of the impact of the change in land use pattern on the ecology of Chambal, its hydrology and on the livelihood of the people who live here is critical, says Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network for Dams, Rivers and People. "Where will the water for agriculture come from? What will be the impact on the top soil? All this will have to be assessed or else this will just be a 'Tughlaqi' (ill thought out) idea," says Thakkar.
Multiple agencies, like the farmer welfare and agriculture development departments, horticulture development department, forest department and animal husbandry department, will have to work in close coordination to pull this off.
The Chambal soil is fertile and people living here, unlike farmers in the Bundelkhand area, are well to do. "They mainly grow mustard, a cash crop," says Girijashankar. "I wonder why the project would not succeed if implemented properly."
Saxena agrees. "The Chambal region has soil upto 50 feet beneath the surface. The only challenge is to level it," he says. The project, he adds, could become a great success, not only for the farmers but also for fruit-growers. Species like ber, custard apple and tendu can be grown successfully, provided the task of levelling the land and creating counter bunds is done properly, Saxena says. But the area is also prone to moisture stress, which is the prime reason why the area is arid, he adds.
So far, the ravines of Chambal have relentlessly thwarted efforts to reclaim them. Chauhan's government clearly has its task cut out.
Sanjeeb Mukherjee contributed to this report
