This man changed the fortunes of a barren land using traditional water wisdom. The story of Dhun-1

[Music] this dry and dusty piece of 500 acres of land on the outskirts of jaipur once hardly had 30 trees on it and today this is what it looks like [Music] the story is about breathing life into the barren land going back to the old wisdom bringing communities together and carving out a new way of living [Music] this is the story of [Music] dhun foggy the seal is 36 kilometers away from jaipur in rajasthan villages in foghi used to practice traditional agriculture but in 1981 the area saw huge flooding is the unscientific ways of farming and irrigation that followed the land slowly turned dry and dusty when i saw this land for the first time i just the sheer size of it 27 kilometers from jaipur uh less than 30 trees on 500 acres of land and as many of the real estate pundits say it's land with absolutely very low potential but he wasn't ready to give up on the land he was deeply influenced by the communities living around jaisalmer and their knowledge of climate resilient practices like water harvesting he put this into practice i have lived in jesuit for a very long time what most of the world writes off as a desert many people have called it their home for millennials and the only reason why they have been able to turn the meager offerings that nature has to offer into an extraordinary wealth of culture is because the first thing that they are excellent with is how to tap water so my inspiration was that we thought the first thing that we can do which is the lowest hanging fruit is to capture the water that falls here and it for the water rainfall here is three to four times than the rainfall of jesus so we built this water body drawing inspiration from the traditional practices of water conservation water harvesting in the desert ecologies of rajasthan manwandra and his team started by studying the history topography and traditional water harvesting systems of the place and with the help of local knowledge and resources he began the daunting task of digging the first pawn on community land first and foremost is [Music] [Music] you access the vast pool of wisdom that has been generated by the living experiences of of the people who have inhabited this region and synthesize it with technologies that are available to us but to bring the community together for digging a pond that will hold 140 million litres of water was a challenge in itself to put it in context 140 million litres of water is enough to meet the drinking needs of 50 000 people for two whole months in india so natural drainage is to be marked out catchments to be detailed studied and see how catchments can be further strengthened in order to bring the water to the egg then digging of the lake then the embankment in on which we are standing just now strengthening of this embankment okay in terms of grasses trees all of that yeah and from where the water will come if it has to overflow from where will the overflow go and go where after three months of back-breaking work the team finally achieved their target the first pond which is now known as galanya talab was a major milestone in transforming the land with this pond in place the land slowly transformed in color greenery began to appear which gave the villagers a new hope to look forward foreign foreign [Music] the pond gave him a new sense of purpose seeing what water can bring to the land changed him completely he began to see the possibilities of creating an ecosystem in his land the next step for him was to dig more water bodies throughout his land to harvest rain water and to ensure that water became a perennial feature of the area we went into building swales on that same natural drainage yeah we came to a point where legs were made on that same natural drainage we did made bandies combined made bandies are which catch water hold it and make it percolate these made bandies started to be the ones which would build moisture retention in soil and their hard work and vision finally started showing results within the next two years the land started to rejuvenate itself more and more trees started to grow the ponds teamed with life and biodiversity the land where only crows were visible started to attract hundreds of birds and animals species rainy seasons [Music] and today this area has recorded more than 120 species of birds 70 species of native trees and many species of animals this land has indeed been brought back to life water is the source of of life in very uh in ways that you can't even imagine it starts propping up is as soon as there is water but this is just the beginning manvinder now aspires to create a community that lives close to nature a space that is away from the chaotic and unsustainable life of the city a place that is truly in tune with its natural environment he has named his project [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Down To Earth

Views: 543,330

Rating: 4.9254627 out of 5

Keywords: Environment, Science, Sustainable Development, health Mobility, Down to Earth, CSE, Centre for Science and Environment, green living, water harvesting, aforestation, water, water management, rain water harvesting, Rajasthan, ecology, Land management, land restoration, eco restoration

Id: 415an1V0FxQ

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/GaddaDavita]

TIL floods can cause desertification

[u/Koala_eiO]

I'm always wondering if greening an area can desertify another. The water collected in the lake, where would it go otherwise?