Tanks have fallen into disrepair for lack of a clear community ownership; but farmers, mostly women, are now being paid for its upkeep
There is a reason why tanks — water bodies that store rainwater for irrigation — are in abundance in Karnataka. The state does not have many rivers; nor does it receive a lot of rainfall.
Karnataka’s Kolar district is dotted by these tanks, which have assumed significance over the years. Their upkeep helps farmers, especially women, earn a source of income.
Most recently, they have helped farmers take the lead and decide how much land they can irrigate during a dry year.
The tank system is more than 1,200 years old, incription on stones reveal. The carvings in granite or gneiss stones speak of land grants for tank construction and cultivation made to individuals or temples. These tanks are made by throwing an earthen bund across a valley.
The components of a tank ecosystem consist of a catchment area from where the water is directed to the tank through feeder channels. The tank has to be regularly desilted to ensure good water holding capacity.
A bund is the earthen embankment to hold water back with an overflow weir and channel to take excess waters away, possibly to a lower-level tank. There is a sluice gate for controlled irrigation and command area with its channels for equal distribution of water to all fields in the command area. These channels are called the Raja Kaluves.
Tanks have fallen into disrepair for lack of a clear community ownership and lack of maintenance by government institutions responsible for its upkeep, though sporadic efforts are being made to bring the system back to life.
In Pichaguntlahalli village in Mulbagal taluk of Kolar district, for example, there is a large tank with an ‘atchcut’— a command area of around 40 hectares. A small non-profit, Aarohana Gramabhivruddhi Samsthe, led by a woman named Asha, made efforts to mobilise the community for the upkeep of the tank.
It is a part of the network called the Collective Action Network, it received funding from a consortium of organizations and desilted a portion of the tank.
With funding from another foundation called India Cares, 35 women were paid Rs 400 a day to clean and desilt feeder channels of the tank. The distribution channels in the command area were also repaired and desilted.
The women appreciated the work they got during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. These were higher than what they would get in a farm or working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005.
The rains have been good this year too. Thanks to the tank system, the tanks have overflowed. The entire command area is under cultivation with the traditional paddy crop. This time, two varieties — Narmada and Mahalaxmi — have been planted.
How ‘Damasha’ helps
The farming community believes that there is enough water for them to get cultivate Rabi crop too.
But this is not how it has always been. Kolar district is drought-prone: It recorded less than the average rain of 700 mm in seven out of last 10 years.
The tank, during such times, would not have enough water to irrigate the command area. During such years, the farmers of Pichaguntlahalli come together and practice a unique system of land and water sharing called Damasha.
The farmers decide how much land can be irrigated with help of the traditional distributor of water from the tank called the Neeruganti. Land is then reallocated to all farmers proportionate to the land they have in the command area. Only this time it is closer to the tank bund where the water can be easily reached.
Water from the three open dug wells in the command is also used for irrigation purpose when the tank dries up.
This unique system of sharing a scarce resource is called Damasha in some parts of Kolar. The farmers of Pichaguntlahalli have no name for it but say they practice it anyway.
Asha, who works with a non-profit Aarohana, said no farmer has a large land holding in the command area. Since all of them have small parcels of land, it helps build community efforts and avoids dominance in decision making by a few.
Farmers adopted this practice near Cholanagunte tank a couple of years ago, she said.
Chalapathy, a young farmer, said farmers take the lead, get others together for a discussion in the critical months of July / August or January to decide on cultivation area and crop for that season.
In the time of climate change and erratic rainfall, the traditional tank system, if maintained well, can provide water, food and fodder security to a village. Sharing land can also help tide over years of scarcity.
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As part of Damasha, farmers decide how much land can be irrigated from the tank with help of the traditional distributor of water. Photo: Vishwanath S .png)
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